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Do You Know The Four P's Of Marketing
Cash Miller
SmallBusinessDelivered.com
Effective marketing of a small business service or product can be hard. Often you have to compete with much bigger companies that have much larger marketing budgets. So if you want to develop an effective marketing plan then you should know about the 4 P's. So what are the four P's of the marketing mix anyway? Product, price, place, and promotion are your keywords in the marketing mix. So what exactly do they mean?
Well first let's talk about Product. The product is of course what you are going to try and sell. If your business is service related then whatever the specific service is becomes your product in this instance. So your first step in developing your marketing mix is to define exactly what it is you want to sell to your potential customers. You'll want to put together some sort of an effective description of your product. Preferably one that allows you to differentiate the product or service you are selling from others. So step one is define your product.
Your second step is to determine a Price for your product. How much do you need to charge to make a profit and how much do you think your customers will be willing to pay? Of course to determine how much you must charge to make a product will require you to determine exactly how much that product costs you to produce. To help you in deciding how much customers might be willing to pay you need to look at similar products or services in your market category. Once you have determined both numbers you can decide what is an acceptable price for you.
Ok now to move on to the third step in marketing your product. This one concerns the Place for you product. Specifically through what outlets or means do you intend to try to sell your product to your customers? This can be through direct sales, retail store sales, the internet, or any other channel you might think of. It's important to decide exactly how you intend to sell your product as it will have a direct impact on your marketing efforts.
Finally we come to the fourth P of the marketing mix Promotion. The first three steps led you to this point. How exactly are you going to promote your product or service? Simply put how do you intend to advertise? Do you wan to use in store promotions, radio, TV, or something else? The promotion aspect is about deciding the methods that are best to advertise your product or service. It is something that will take you time to determine. You'll want to see how your competition does it and consider if there might be a better way. But this is the most important of the four P's to consider.
Small business owners and entrepreneurs should always have a basic grasp of every aspect of their business. Marketing is no different. As a small business owner knowing the basics of marketing is a must. So when determining how to market you product or service always keep in mind the four P's. Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.
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Cash Miller is an experienced entrepreneur and speaker who has spent over a decade as a small business owner. His years of experience in small business cover a variety of topics. If you are looking for more small business information you can go to http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com
Article submitted Saturday, September 13, 2008
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