September 2004 Issue:

-The Four P's of Marketing (Part 1)
-Marketing's 10 Commandments
-Tech Talk - Maintaining Your Computer

Archived Issues

The Four P's of Marketing
Part 1: Product

Ever heard of the four "P's" of Marketing? Well, if you pay attention to them, you can streamline your marketing efforts and convey a clear, concise message about your business. So what are the four P's? They are: Product, Pricing, Promotion, and Placement.

This article is the first of a four-part series that explains the four P's and how they can benefit your small business marketing initiatives. So let's start with - you guessed it - Product.

A product can be a physical object, a service your company offers, or even an idea. When describing your product, make sure to differentiate between the product's features and the product's benefits - there is a difference! Features are the product's characteristics, such as size or color, and benefits are the reason customers buy the product - what's in it for them. For example, a feature of the new, smaller cell phones is their physical size, while a benefit is that they are small enough to fit in your coat pocket. Understanding the difference between your product's features and benefits will help you describe your products in your marketing materials, advertisements, and publications so that potential customers have a clear understanding of your product.

Differentiating between the features and benefits can also help you easily explain how your product is unique or better than the competition's. Here are some examples of strategies to help your product gain a competitive edge:

• Modify or improve your product's features. For instance, if your competitor lowers its price on hand soap, you might add vitamin E to your product as a "new and improved" feature, while keeping your price the same. Improving your product is a great way to show customers that you care about their loyalty.
  
• Be the first in your industry to offer a new feature. For example, being known as the first company to create hand soap with vitamin E will establish your company as a "leader," at least until other companies follow your lead.
  
• Take a few new features and group them together to create new product models, including everything from basic to "fully loaded." This can also apply to services, such as a carpet cleaning company offering a certain price for cleaning 3 rooms, another price for 3 rooms plus furniture, and another that includes rooms, furniture, and area rugs.

Knowing your product, its features, and its benefits will help you present it (and your company) in the best possible light to your customers. A good understanding of your product is also essential to successful marketing. Having a clear picture of your product lets you communicate all its best features and benefits to your customers through your sales and marketing materials, advertisements, and any other marketing initiatives your company uses to promote your business.

Next month: Part 2 - Pricing.

Marketing's 10 Commandments

Looking for a little direction with your marketing? Here are 10 “Commandments” you should follow religiously!

1. Thou shalt not think of marketing as only a department.
Marketing your business involves every person in your company, whether it’s intentional or not. From the person answering the phone to the person closing the deal, all of your employees end up representing your company. Make sure your team knows how to effectively communicate with customers and that they make a good impression each time they have contact with clients.

2. Thou shalt fill thy prospecting pipeline.
In order to keep getting new customers, you must continually look for new prospects to build your sales pipeline. Prospects turn into customers, who in turn generate referrals that become new prospects, and so on.

3. Thou shalt follow the 60-day rule.
Even your best customers like to hear from you, so make sure you stay in touch with them. Prospects and other contacts need your attention on a regular basis, too. Make sure you don’t let more than 60 days go by without making contact with these people, or you risk being forgotten — or worse, being replaced by a competitor.

4. Honor the concept of planning.
You must have a specific marketing plan to help you promote your products or services effectively. Keep your costs down by planning ahead so you know what marketing initiatives are scheduled, and what the expenses will be.

5. Thou shalt not quit too soon.
Marketing activities aren’t always an overnight success, so you must be persistent when trying new things. Try new initiatives at least three times before deciding to keep or dump them. Repetition is essential to reaching your target market.

6. Remember thy marketing schedule and keep it holy.
Marketing is a full-time effort, and you can’t be successful if you work on it only “when I get the time.” Schedule some time each week or each month to devote to marketing materials, updating your web site, and planning with your staff.

7. Thou shalt not slash thy marketing budget when times are slow.
During the recession of ‘81-’82, research shows that companies that maintained or increased their marketing budgets had an average sales growth of 275% during the next five years. In contrast, firms that cut their marketing budgets saw sales growth of just 19% during the same period.

8. Thou shalt get rid of one outdated marketing task each year.
New technologies and ideas make it easy to try new things with marketing initiatives, but you can’t let your list grow out of control. Identify one marketing task each year that no longer adds value and eliminate it.

9. Thou shalt honor thine employees, even when they are moving on to other jobs.
Believe it or not, a large number of new referrals come from former employees. Make sure to leave things on good terms with your departing employees and chances are they will send new business your way.

10. Thou shalt remember to say “thank you” every chance you get.
Good manners and sincere appreciation are always appropriate, especially in dealing with customers. For example, consider sending a simple thank-you note or a gift certificate as a token of your appreciation. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, just considerate.

Important but Overlooked, Maintaining Your Computer

Your computer needs maintenance to keep it running at its best, and simple routine repairs will help you keep your computer in good working order.

Know your computer. At the very least, you should know what type of processor you have, how much random access memory (RAM) is installed, and how big your hard drive is. Being aware of these vital statistics will put you in a better position to troubleshoot problems when programs tap your machine's capabilities.

Make an emergency boot disk. Create a startup disk using your original operating system's CD. Save the disk in a safe place should your computer have problems booting up from the hard drive. If you're a Windows user, you should also create a separate floppy disk containing the config .sys file, which is the driver that enables your computer to read the system disk from the CD drive.

Use your system's built-in utilities. Your hard drive stores information by scattering it all over the hard drive, and this fragmentation eventually slows down the computer. Periodically run Disk Defragmenter (for Windows) or a similar application to consolidate the data and keep your drive organized. Other utilities, such as Disk First Aid for Mac and ScanDisk for Windows, can repair disk problems and make your machine run more efficiently.

Use antivirus software. Make sure you have an antivirus program, such as Norton AntiVirus, installed and running on your computer. Set it to automatically scan your system at least twice a month, and be sure to run a scan every time you download a program or copy a file from a floppy.

Back up regularly. You should, as a rule, back up your important files at least once a month. Some back up options include manual, where you can put the important files on a disk or CD, or automatic, with a backup-and-restore program that will do the work for you.

Take care of your computer. Shut down your computer properly and respond to warnings and error messages promptly. It is good to also keep your machine as clean as possible, removing dust periodically.

Five Sparrows values your privacy and will never share, sell, or rent your information to anyone, and you may unsubscribe from this publication at any time.

Copyright 2004 Five Sparrows, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
3889 Hartland Hills, Hartland, MI 48353
www.fivesparrows.com