Posts Tagged ‘promotion’

What is Marketing?

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

Marketing can be described as a business function communicating and delivering what customers want in ways that benefit the business. The business is the selling of flowers. Customers in the area that would like something special to give a loved one during a holiday season and jewelry is becoming a habit. The flower business has fresh flowers in an elegant arrangement that would satisfy the customer wanting to give a gift other than jewelry. Marketing is the tool to convey the message that flowers make the perfect gift to the customer.

Marketing consists of four Ps: Price, Product, Promotion, and Place. In order to build a successful business, organizations need to implement all four of these items. Many organizations have already implemented one or a couple of these items, but successful organizations have combined all four into a winning marketing strategy. Examining each element of the marketing mix provides a better understanding of how the organization can maximize the marketing effort.

Price: Price is what a customer is willing to pay for our product or service. This can be perhaps the trickiest part of the marketing mix, because low pricing can drive away customers as quickly as high pricing if quality becomes a question. E-business juncture presents methods to lower cost-per-unit, so you can maximize profits while not calling into question quality.

Product: Product is why the business was incorporated in the first place. Someone had a grand idea and wanted to share it with as many customers as possible. Products or services enable the organization to generate revenue and image. The business wants to show the World the product so the World wants to purchase the product or service. This means quality from the first step in the production process to when the buyer has the product in their possession. E-business juncture will provide the personalized tool to enable the organization to get the quality product into the possession of the purchaser.

Promotion: Promotion is the core of marketing. Promotion involves increasing customer awareness of your product, like newspaper advertisements, telemarketing, and mailers. No longer do organizations need to rely solely upon expensive, and sometimes fruitless, advertising means but can create their own promotions and catalogs, which are viewable by anyone with a web browser around the Globe. E-business juncture is going to aid in adding this new promotional tool to your arsenal, the Internet.

Place: Place is basically having the product available in the correct area in relationship to customer requirements. In the past, a snowmobile dealer would not be able to generate sales if they were located in Florida. However, with the advent of the Internet and e-business juncture, a snowmobile dealer in Florida can now market directly to customers in regions across the globe that have need of the product.

Marketing: Promotion is fun

Monday, December 1st, 2008

Promotion is the most fun of the four Ps of marketing. Traditional business models use print advertising and television commercials to promote their products. E-commerce provides you more flexibility than a 30 second air spot or an add in a newspaper or magazine. Promotion is where you need to start thinking outside traditional marketing.

Internet marketing is perfect for letting people know about your product. Remember in the initial post when I mentioned the Internet is about content? Promotion is about creating interest in your product to the point customers want to purchase your product. Online promotion is very easy when you consider the costs of traditional advertising.

Television advertising can cost your organization a nice sum of capital (remember you need to consider this cost in your break-even analysis). However, with a digital camera, a simple movie editor and a free online social network account you can create your own commercials and embed them on your web site. We have a simple 30 second spot on our Relax, Enjoy the show web page.

Another promotion method is through special discounts on your web site. You can incorporate coupon deals, buy-one-get one free deals and manipulate the price in accordance to supply and demand. Your lower overhead will provide you with the room to manipulate pricing through promotion. Once you have developed your web site to provide the utmost promotion of your product you need to expand your promotion.

Once you have your web site promotion established you will need to expand your product promotion. This is accomplished using global advertising and affiliations. Affiliations are the least expensive when you consider you are paying an advertiser with a percentage of the sales their web site generates. Global advertising generally consists of pay-per-click advertising. Pay-per-click can be quite profitable as an advertising tool when you consider people will be directed to your web site to view your promotions.

Promotion can be fun. You need to consider how new mediums can be used to your advantage in promoting your product without drastically increasing your break-even point. Remember to use many of the promotions you see in print, like discounts and coupons, along with global and affiliate advertising. To cap your product promotion, enjoy yourself and make your own commercials for you web site.

Mike Kniaziewicz, MIS