Simplify Your Marketing

There are certain things that help you analyse your business. The 7 Ps will be a good place to start for your Marketing.

We have talked about the 4Ps but the 7Ps is a more holistic view. So as you plan for the end of the year, think of the following:
 Product – What am I selling and offering? Without a Viable Product, you have no business.

Price –  Take a critical look at your pricing this season. If you need to increase your rice, please. Stop letting fear hold you back.

Promotions – If we don’t see you, we cannot buy from you. There is no shame in promoting your business. Sell your market.

Place – Go to where your customers are. You cannot sell only where it is convenient for you. You need to go to where your customers are.

Process – Do you have the right processes in place for your business? Your Product can be the best Product in the Market but if you have the wrong processes or no processes in place for your business, you will have problems.

People – Who is driving your business? If you are the one driving it, then how are you showing up? If you have people that work with you, how are they showing up? Think about it.

Physical Evidence – Show me your evidence. Yes, I want to see what people are saying. Testimonials and reviews are awesome!!

Take time to review your business. Remember, it’s YOUR Business.

Examine Your Processes

I really like this acronym from Dr. Ebi Ofrey.

In order to simplify your processes, remember ERRC:

1. E - Eliminate anything in your business that is wasting your time and resources and not adding value. You would need to take a look at your processes to find out what they are.

2. R - Reduce anything that might be important but not as important as the current time and energy you are giving it. These can also be time wasters. 

3. R - Raise the frequency of those things that are adding value to your business. It might be a money making process or a time saving process. Whatever they are, look for them and raise the frequency.

4. C - Create new things that would delight your customers. 

Just look around you and you would be shocked at the many little things you discover that you can create to add value.

10 Lessons from the Book "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

I have been doing a lot of reading lately and I am going to stat sharing nuggets from as many of the books as I can.

Today I am sharing 10 nuggets from the book - "Becoming" by Michelle Obama.

Below are the nuggets:

1. Being rich does not prevent you from failure and being poor does not stop you from success.

2. Own your smartness and exhibit it with pride.

3. Sometimes you have to fight to be accepted or make a point.
4. Failure is a feeling long before it becomes an actual result.
5. Self doubt is usually escalated by fear.
6. Have confidence in yourself.
7. Put in extra time to get the extra result.
8. Ask for help when you need help.
9. Learn to pace yourself. You don't have to do everything at the same time.
10. Stop procrastinating. Just do it.

Hope the nuggets remind you of things you should start doing or stop doing.

See you next time and please leave a comment if you can.....

Have a lovely day!!

Your Brand As An Investment

John Stuart, chairman of Quaker (ca. 1900) said and I quote,  "If this business were split up, I would give you the land and bricks and mortar, and I would take the brands and trade marks, and I would fare better than you".

This quote right here is the whole essence of branding. I speak with some business owners and when we talk about advancing the business or when working on a project, spend on Marketing seems to be the one that they want to easily remove.

So you hear things like, "We've paid for the venue". "The equipment is delivered". "We've paid for the goods", etc. But when you mention things like "What about T-shirts for staff to wear on the opening day, branded merchandise, signages and roll up banners, etc, you hear things like "That is money we don't have to spend.

The good thing however is when they are finally convinced to do these things, they usually see the impact of investing in the Marketing of the business.

When you begin to see the money you spend on branding your business as an investment and not a cost, you will realise that in the end, your Brand Equity (Brand Value) may be more important that the tangible assets you have in the business.

Like the quote above, a brand name can be so strong that if you take away everything surrounding the brand and leave just the name alone and it's trademark, because of the value it has built over time, it can recover quickly.

Do you see your Brand as an investment or a cost? 

Please leave a comment below. 

Strategic Positioning

In a competitive environment, you need to do things differently to stand out. You can decide to either do things different from what your competitors are doing, or you do the exact same thing but in a different way.

There are 3 main ways of doing things differently from what your competitors are doing. Let me give some examples:

1.     You can decide to serve few needs of many customers - What this means is that you choose many customers however you decide to serve only a particular need. For instance, people need fashion items like shoes, dresses, bags, etc. however you choose to only sell shoes.

2.     You serve a broad need of few customers - Using the same fashion house example, instead of selling only shoes, you decide to sell bags, clothes, shoes, accessories - everything but only for a certain group of people e.g. the PEP Stores that target only the lower to middle income end of the market.

3.     You serve the broad need of many customers - but in a narrow market. An example will be that you do your business but only in a particular location. For instance, some companies will only operate in an area with a certain population density.   

For instance, When Walmart started, they would only go to locations with a certain population density. They take foot counts to measure the traffic that come and go from a location and they have a set target that must be achieved before they set up in the location.

If you decide to do exactly what you your competitors are doing, a way of differentiating yourself could be in just the way you go about your business. In your customer service, your packaging, your attention to details, the total experience they get when they encounter your brand.

The essence of having or doing certain activities different from the rest of your competitors is that it gives you a competing edge. This edge can be in pricing, in delivery speed, in quality delivery or in flexibility. 

This is because you are not fighting in a red ocean but in a blue ocean and this would help you use your resources in a better way.

Porter's 5 Forces - Key Success Factor

The key success factor simply means the factors that would determine whether a Business will succeed and make a profit.

The Porters 5 forces is a simple method of checking the forces that affect your industry. The first factor is the threat of new entrants. This simply means that you have to look at your business and see how easy it is for the business to be replicated. If the business is one that people can easily come into, that means you have to think of creative ways of maintaining a competitive advantage.  

So for instance you sell wigs. What will differentiate you will be maybe the variety you have. Are you collaborating with any business like an accessory business that give your customers an added benefit if they buy from you? Do you maybe have a partnership with a salon where your customers get their wigs maintained at a discount? Thinking of clever ways of standing out will give you an edge. 

The second thing you look at is the availability of substitutes. Can your customers use something else to get the same satisfaction? Still using the example of wigs, a substitute for this can be braids or weave on. Another example is beef and chicken or fish. These are substitutes. Once you establish the availability of substitutes, then you have to begin to craft your message to highlight the benefit of your own product and why it is superior to the substitutes.

The third thing to look out for is buyers power. Are your customers able to pay for your products or services? If yes, are the numbers enough for you to make a profit or just to break even? If the buyer power for a particular product is limiting then you may have to consider your pricing. 

We will talk about the last 2 in subsequent posts.

Align Your Product And Services To The Needs Of Your Target Customers

I was watching an interview of JK Rowling - The author of the book series Harry Potter and she said something that was both profound and insightful.

She mentioned that when she started writing the books, her target audience were boys. Now because she is a lady writing story books targeted primarily at boys, she and her publishers were not sure if it would be readily accepted by the target audience.

As a result of this, they decided to use just the initials of her first and second names so that it does not readily come across that she is a lady.

So her names are Joanne Kathleen Rowling however she writes as JK Rowling (which sounds a bit masculine) and for the longest time a lot of people assumed she was a man (myself included!).

The purpose of the above is just to emphasize again that satisfying the needs of the target customer should be the ultimate aim.

If your business is a B2B, which means your clients are business, then everything you do around your product and service must be done in a very professional and business-like manner (not to say that if you are doing a B2C which means your clients are individuals , you should be unprofessional however you can be more relaxed in your look and feel).

Take for instance you sell baby products and your target customers are pregnant and nursing mothers, you must ensure that everything you do in terms of product packaging, messaging, offerings, etc are targeted primarily at mothers and women. 

They have to see your product and your services and have an emotional connection to it. The imagery, colours and language should be such that will make them think of their babies and want to make them part with money to get that product or service.

Having the target customer in mind means tweaking or looking for alternatives to ensuring your product or services resonates with the target audience just like JK Rowling did.

Till next week, please focus on your target audience and meet their needs.

Do leave a comment. We would love to hear from you.