The Elusive Marketing Magic Bullet

Today, I have to share some really bad news with some of the members of my reading audience. Despite what some have been led to believe - there is no Magic Bullet in Marketing.

I know some of you are out there are thinking, "Yeah, duh!!! We get it." But I know there are others out there (and you know who you are) asking "Well, why not?"

The goals of this newsletter are to answer that question for the latter group and reiterate basic marketing fundamentals for the former.

The "Process" of Marketing

The short answer to why there is no marketing magic bullet is that effective marketing is the result of a process. Ineffective marketing can be anything you like -- and can be delivered as quickly as you want it.

At Mosaic Marketing Management we only do "effective marketing."

We engage in a time-honored process that takes into account the 3C's (Company, Competition, and Customers) and the 4P's (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion). This process has been used with great success by many companies and professionals around the world for years.

So what exactly is the process of marketing? First, know your C's.

1. Company - Determine what your company is particularly good at making and delivering. In high brow marketing terms this is called the company's "core competencies."
   
   
2. Competition - Identify who else makes and sells similar products or substitute products that would compete with your offering. Learn as much about them as you can, especially where they are strong or weak on the 4 P's (see Numbers 1-4 below).
   
   
3. Customer - Describe those companies or end user customers that buy and/or use your products (or those of your competitors). The more detailed and precisely you can describe these customers the more likely you are to find a set of similar characteristics that can be used to define potential new customers. The combination of current and potential customers is, in fact, your target market.
   

For the 4P's part of the process see below…..

The 4P's Process

So once you know what you are selling, to whom you are selling it, and against whom you are selling, you need to figure out the following:

1. Product - What products will you sell? It's critically important to think about these products in terms of the benefits they deliver, not just the features or functions they have or perform.
   
   
2. Price - At what price will you sell this product? Where does the price come into balance with the benefits this product delivers to the market? How does that compare with competition? How many product units can you sell at various price points? (Thinking about lowering prices on products? Click here to find out how many more units you need to sell to make up the loss.)
   
   
3. Place - How will you get the product into the customers' hands? Where do customers and potential customers go to buy these products? Do they buy direct or through a distributor? Do they buy off the Internet or do they buy through catalogs? Does your pricing and costs allow you to go through these channels and still make money?
   
   
4. Promotion - How are you going to position our products in the market so that they are unique and compelling versus the competition? How can you cost effectively reach end user customers with this positioning to create interest and demand for your products? How do end user customers learn about these kinds of products?

Good Things Come to Those Who Work

Only when you have worked hard to learn the answers to the above questions and know the information called for in each of those process steps can you begin to layout your marketing strategy and translate into creative elements such as packaging, point-of-purchase materials, Web sites, tag lines, logos, ads, direct mail campaigns, pay-per-click campaigns, etc.

Hard work and smart thinking - and a little time - is required to do set the right foundation for construction and execution of the plan. If you have a great plan and you keep working it, then you are more likely to have success. This premise applies to so many things in life INCLUDING marketing.

Call us if you need some help either getting the answers to those questions or pulling together or executing a strategy.

Mosaic creates customers for business-to-business companies through specific project work, on-going retainer assignments or marketing coaching sessions.

Until next time ...

Rosemary Walter
847-483-5018
Rose1Walter@MosaicMM.com

Quote of the Month

© 2006 Rosemary Walter, all rights reserved. You are free to use material from Mosaic's Monthly Marketing Tips in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including a live website link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read:

"By Rosemary Walter of Mosaic Marketing Management, Inc. Please visit Rosemary's web site at http://www.MosaicMM.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for business to business companies."