The 5 Ps of Marketing: How Important Is It In Growing Your Business

Starting a business and making sure that it can fare against the strongest competitors in the market is an endeavor that takes a lot of strategic planning and hard work. Right from the beginning stages down to the very first customer purchase, there are plenty of sweet victories and sour defeats but if you have good planning and excellent understanding of the basic stuff, building up your business and making sure that it is destined for success won’t be as hard.

One pillar that your business must have if it is to succeed is the concept and practice of effective and efficient marketing. But what exactly is marketing and how can you ensure that it’s working all its best in helping you achieve your business goals? What are the basic components of marketing and how important are they in helping you grow your venture? Let’s answer these and learn even more as move along in this article.

What is Marketing?

In simple terms, marketing is the practice of promoting a product or service you it can sell more to prospective customers and even existing ones. Marketing encompasses other activities like advertising and market research.

Your business, brand, product, or service needs marketing if it is to be known by your target consumers. It needs to be promoted and advertised to ensure that the message is effectively spread and heard by every prospective customer across the entire market.

Without marketing, your business will never gain the exposure and popularity that it badly needs and if that happens, you’ll never be able to earn back the capital you’ve invested in starting the business and your employees will never be paid their salary. Marketing is crucial as it ensures the inward flow of customers to your business which directly influences your overall sales and profit.

Marketing Through The Years

More than half a century in the past, marketing was mostly done through print ads which included product flyers, posters, and others took steps further by printing pocket calendars bearing their brand name on it. Marketing eventually found its way to radio and television which expanded its scope and made it more effective as an advertising tool for businesses seeking to expand their customer base. The concept of “spray and pray” governed this particular era when public ads on radio and television were the most popular methods of marketing.

But in the 21st century, marketing has seen so much evolution and expanded its scope to conquer even the Internet. Big companies now move towards online marketing and promotion continually publishing content on their social media pages and in video streaming services in order to reach a global market of diverse customers across different countries.

Marketing principles and strategies have also evolved as it moved through the web. Online shops found a way to increase the efficacy of their marketing strategies by offering referral points and rewards to loyal customers who become promotion partners while others even set up an ambassador program where loyal customers get the chance of becoming affiliates and promoters in exchange of commission per sale that they bring in to the shop.

Marketing has seen much changes and evolution through the years but its basic components didn’t change. There still are 5 pillars that make it thrive and survive as a strategic business tool. Others call it 5 Ps of Marketing because all of them start with the letter “P” but for this article, let me name them “The 5 Pillars of Marketing” as we explore the importance of each one in building up and growing your business. So let’s hop in to the first one.

1. Product – Plan For The Perfect One

This first pillar serves as the binding force of all. It is the heart and soul of your business and therefore needs to be planned well. Once you know what product or service it is that you’ll offer or sell, you’ll need to ensure that it has the perfect branding, functionality, packaging, overall appearance, quality, and even go as far as thinking and formulating the warranty terms.

It is also important to consider your customer’s wants and needs and whether or not your product will be able to fill that void. This will ensure that your product or service is going to be sellable or patronized by customers. Next, you’ll need to also ensure that there is enough supply and that manufacturers are available to keep the supply flowing especially as your business grows and sells more and more of your products.

If it’s a service that you’re offering then you need to make sure that there’s enough manpower to keep it going and that all the needed materials are readily available. It takes a lot of planning for this particular pillar to ensure that your business keeps going stronger in time.

2. Price – Make it Pocket and Profit Friendly

Price is the next pillar that will make or break your business. By principle, you’ll need to make it pocket-friendly on the part of the customers while staying profit-friendly on your part as the business owner. Set prices that will be able to cover your overall cost. It will help your business succeed if you offer not just one mode of payment but multiple ones so customers will feel the convenience of purchasing your product using the payment method that they currently have access to.

Your product’s price should also be a reflection of the market position that your business is in. For instance, if you are selling premium car parts then your prices should be above the ones that are of lower quality to give that impression that the materials used in your products and as well as its overall quality is better.

Look into the prices that your competitors are offering to their customers and offer a much lower one without getting too low or your business will suffer loss. Just make their prices as your basis to set yours and always stay competitive without sacrificing overall business integrity and sustenance.

3. Promotion – Don’t Spend More Than You Earn

This pillar will now involve all the efforts that you are planning to do in order to get the message known by as much people as possible. This encompasses social media, advertising, ambassadorship, offline promotions, media campaigns, and every other tool of promotion that’s there is. Promotion expenditures can be high that is why you need to plan and strategize on this aspect thoroughly.

If you’re still on the beginning stages, it would help if you first do minor tests of every method that you think is best for your business and do an analysis on the return on investment (ROI) to avoid spending too much. Identify your target market, choose the best channel to use for an effective promotion effort and bring in more sales, something that will amount more than what you spent.

4. Place – Take The Business To Your Customers

This next pillar will now involve how you bring your product down to your customers. You’ll need to find the right place and offer it to them at the right time and deliver the right quantity every time. Place not only means your business address but also involves channels for distribution such as online shop, physical store, mall stalls, direct distribution, retail outlets, etc. This pillar would also include market coverage and even logistics and service levels.

As an example, let’s say you are going to launch an online shop, your very first move should be aimed at understanding how prospective customers use the Internet or if they even have access to it. Next, you need to analyze whether they are willing to purchase your product online and if they are willing to pay for the shipping cost of your product.

If your business is to grow, you’ll need to think of some ways and means to expand your product so it can serve more people and accommodate more growth in the future. If it’s a physical store then you might want to open more branches or open if for franchise so you can effectively expand not just your customer base but also your overall business standing.

5. People – Treat Them Well No Matter Which Side They Are From

Another crucial pillar that your startup business must have is people. This will not only include your customers but also the staff and even you yourself being the business owner. If you’ve been seeing much growth lately then definitely make sure that your staff is enough to serve the volume of customers flowing into your shop.

Understand the needs and wants of your customers so you can continually offer them stuff that they would love to patronize. You’ll also need to consider training more staff that will handle customer service or technical support. People are your most important capital so always stay connected with them. Keep your customers hooked up and your employees trained and rewarded. Your business will flow towards growth for sure when you do all these things.

5 Ps – Your Pillars to Business Success

A house needs a strong foundation in order to stand; it won’t stay erected without those pillars that support the overall structure. The same is true with business, it needs to be built upon the basic foundation that we’ve discussed above which are keys to building a venture that is capable of standing with the competition and even defeating them. You can never do planning and strategizing alone so be sure to seek help or hire some skilled workers to assist you as you go forward from the conception of your product idea down to promotion and expansion.

Look into the examples of successful businesses and take some lessons that you can glean upon as you work your way towards making your business grow. It won’t be easy bit the important thing is that everything is doable. With the right help and the dedicated support of people who are skilled and experienced in marketing, building your business and directing it towards success will be a sure thing.

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