So you have a great idea for a product that you are certain everyone will want to buy. Did you do your research right?
Before introducing a product onto the market, you want to make sure people will buy it. Luckily, in order to do so, you don’t need some mysterious power that foresees the future; you simply need to put some work into finding out what your customers want and how they want it.
There are different strategies of a marketing mix that marketing managers adopt to do this, but the most commonly known is the 4Ps. First introduced by E. J. McCarthy in 1960, the 4Ps of marketing study exactly four variables whose results help you to decide how to take a new offer to market or to test an existing marketing strategy.
The 4Ps are:
Product (or service)
Place
Price
Promotion
When studying the 4Ps you are asking several questions for each variable. The questions will then define your marketing mix.
The following steps will help you to optimise your marketing mix:
- Identify the product or service you want to market
- Study the 4Ps
- Ask many questions, like ‘why’ and ‘what if’
- Put yourself in your customer’s’ shoes and ask questions from their point of view
This is an effective marketing approach to that initial great idea you had. Is your target market still the same or do you need to make some changes to your plans?
Kate Tyler is the founder of Shake Social and our long time social media expert. A regular speaker at events, Kate offers consultancy and training on a range of digital marketing topics, in particular safeguarding and using social media in an educational setting.