Marketing is the planning and execution of the production, pricing, promotion and distribution of goods and services, to create exchanges that achieve individual and business objectives.

Put simply, marketing is about matching every part of your business with your customers so that:

	You meet their needs.
	They are aware that you meet their needs.
	They are motivated to buy from you and,
	They are motivated to keep buying from you.

If you don’t achieve these outcomes, customers won’t buy from you and you will go out of business. It won’t matter that you make the best product in the world or if you are very good at bookkeeping and administration, – poor marketers go out of business.

Sell the Benefits

Customers won’t buy from you if they can’t receive benefits from doing so. Customers always ask, “What’s in it for me?” when deciding whether to buy.

When producing goods or services, make sure that you provide customers with more benefits than your competitors. When pricing, make sure that customers are getting good value (in view of the benefits and the price), and you are making a good profit. When promoting, sell the benefits – make sure the benefits are prominent in your message and are clearly explained. Distribution should make it easy for your customers to buy the product and enjoy the benefits.

The Marketing Process

1. Research your Market Environment

Research your industry and your competitors, and establish who your target customers or target market are for your goods and services. Only once you know:

	Who your customers are, what their needs are and how much they are prepared to pay, and,
	Who your competitors are, what they sell and at what price(s),
Can you decide how to position your goods or services in your target market(s) and develop a marketing plan to achieve your goals.

2. Develop and Implement your Marketing Plan

Marketing covers much more than advertising goods or services. When developing your marketing plan, consider how you will use the elements of your marketing mix to attract customers, meet their needs and keep them coming back for more.

The elements of the marketing mix are the 4 P’s:

Product
Price
Promotion
Place (distribution)

Product

To your customers, your Product is all of the features, advantages and benefits that they can enjoy from buying your goods or services. Your Product is not only the goods or services that your business offers, but also includes:

	People within your business and the service they give,
	The packaging of the product or service, and,
	The processes that you have to make buying easier and more enjoyable.

The product element is the customer’s entire experience of dealing with your business from the quality of customer service that you give to the image, environment and facilities of your business premises.

Price

Price relates to your pricing strategy that includes the setting of prices for your products or services. Pricing should take into consideration how much the market is prepared to pay (market demand pricing), and mark-ups that are needed to cater for overheads, other costs and profit margins. The provision of credit to customers, the costs of credit and volume discounting and also aspects of pricing.

Promotion

Promotion relates to how you make your customers aware of your goods or services, and the benefits that they can receive by buying them. Promotional activities include:

	Advertising – where you pay for your message to be sent to your target customers through newspaper, radio, television, magazine, outdoor signage, web sites and telephone directories.
	Publicity comes from sending press releases to print and media, giving interviews to the media and from favourable word of mouth. From these activities, information reaches your target customers through articles that are published in newspapers, magazines and TV, at no charge.
	Sales Promotions are short term non-routine incentives that a business offers to encourage purchase of products or services, that include coupons and competitions.
	Personal Selling is the use of personal presentations and meetings to sell foods or services. Effective personal selling requires the use of good interpersonal skills, excellent product service knowledge and the ability to sell the benefits of the goods or services to the prospective customer.
	Direct Marketing includes sending letters, emails and brochures to individual target customers. Often followed by personal selling or telemarketing, direct marketing activities normally use a customer database to identify and contact target customers, and to record details about interactions with these customers. (Note: the option of promoting your business through Direct marketing may be subject to privacy legislation).

Place

Place relates to the distribution element of marketing and covers issues such as methods of distribution, distribution channels and the location of the business.

3. Review and Improve

After you have implemented your marketing plan, determine how well it has increased your sales and profits and make any necessary improvements.

If your marketing plan is written down, it will be easier for you to see how your plan has performed and where improvements can be made. Where possible, establish goals and benchmarks so that you can identify more clearly how well your plan has worked and where improvements are necessary.

Should you have any further queries about the benefits of marketing, please contact us on 0121 355 4774 or email info@je-consulting.co.uk or send us an enquiry.