July 2022 Economic Development Update:
You’re starting a business and you’ve followed the five steps so far: came up with your big idea, conducted research, determined your business structure, wrote a business plan and worked through your financials. Now it’s time to implement the marketing plan section of your business plan. The “4 Ps of Marketing”, also known as the marketing mix, will provide a simple framework.
Product. The product is the goods or services you’ll be selling to your customers. The features and benefits of your product will drive the rest of the marketing mix. Bottom-line, how do your products and/or services make your potential customers’ lives easier or better and what is that worth to them?
Price. The price is what your customers will pay for your goods or services. You’ll know from your research how you’re going to price your products compared to your competitors. Remember, lower pricing is not always the answer – sometimes demonstrating value warrants a higher price that customers are willing to pay. Providing excellent customer service adds significantly to that value.
Place. The place is the location where you’re selling your product. From your planning process, you already know if you’re going to have a bricks-and-mortar store or if you’re offering your product online. You might also have a transient strategy where you sell at local festivals, farmer’s markets, consumer or trade shows, or direct to customers in their homes.
Promotion. Promotion is the advertising to get information about your goods and/or services to your ideal customers. All the other elements of the marketing mix determine what tactics you’ll use. If you are selling online, you’ll need a website with e-commerce capabilities and a social media strategy to drive traffic to your site. If you have a physical store, you might use some combination of curb appeal, signage, social media, website and word of mouth referrals to get people through the door.
Sunrise Corner Economic Development is here to help you work through the implementation of your marketing plan. We help promote local businesses through our online and hard-copy business directory, social media, website blog and promotion at events. No matter what stage your business is at, I’d love to hear from you. If you’d like to discuss some ideas or get help narrowing down the options, feel free to reach out.
Monique Chenier
monique@sunrisecornermb.ca