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Recently, Viper Logic learned that, although we all know how to market whatever product we produce, carry, resell, or any services we might offer, that there is a short checklist to apply to your offerings. The 4 P’s apply to any way, style, or method you choose to offer your products and services. Regardless of whether you’re selling your products online or in a store, this is the type of self testing a company has to be truthful about asking itself the 4 P’s prior to beginning any product or service offering.
The 4 P’s are:
- Product - Is it needed and in demand? Or is it a better product that the world needs?
- Price - How is your pricing? Is your pricing equal, higher, or lower than your competition?
- Place - Where are people going to find your product? Is your product going to need a distributor?
- Promotion - Is your product a new breakthrough that requires educating the world? Is your product the best there is, and you need to tell the world? Is the product already on the market, but yours offers more then just a lower price?
Asking yourself the 4 P’s will get you on the right path to beginning the journey of growing your business and its marketing tools. What we are getting into is an organized process, established by the Marketing Industry, taught in all business and marketing colleges worldwide.
ViperMailer.com Applies the 4 P’s
Logic thinks that these are helping our overall company, Viper Logic, by continually updating our service, which is ViperMailer.com, our web based Email Marketing Service product.
You can see and use the email campaign builder by utilizing Email Marketing Services. You will, then, experience what an email marketing service can do for you. We’ve applied the 4 P’s to Viper Mailer, and, today, this tool is a much more client interactive product.
4 P's Defined
Now, let’s step away from the mirror, take a look at each of these 4 P’s in greater detail, and ask ourselves the following questions:
P-1: Product Defined
- Is your idea using your name or is it a popular brand name?
- Does your idea have a particular unique functionality?
- Does your idea have a unique style?
- Is there quality in your idea?
- Have you thought about the safety needed in your idea?
- Do you understand the packaging of your idea?
- Are there repairs and customer support in place for your idea?
- Does your idea come with a warranty or guarantee?
- Are there additional accessories and services for your idea?
P-2: Price Defined
Does your idea have a pricing structure for affiliates, distributors, and retailers?
Have you come up with a suggested retail price?
Do you have a payment plan, net terms, COD, or volume pricing?
Is the idea in need of seasonal and off seasonal pricing plans?
Can your idea be bundled with other products or services? If the answer is, yes, is there a pricing plan for this?
Pricing and Selling on Price Alone
This is an area where we want to share our strategy about selecting the best clients that you can. We have discovered that customers, clients, or potential clients that buy on price are a bad thing. The exception being that you are a bulk seller, like Wal-Mart or somewhere similar to those types of commodity buyers and sellers.
Viper Logic has had a set policy for deciding who will be our clients. There is a not much talked about trait that goes with the “buy on price” type of customers. Here is what we have learned: If you are not a commodity seller, you need to sell based on service, quality, support, value, value added, and customer loyalty programs.
When you sell to a client on price, you are going to get something else with that decision, and it is these types of buy on price people that tend to wear you and your resources out. You not only honored the clients wish to provide a goods or service for their price point, but they also are going to be calling and emailing you all of the time. Next, this type of buyer tends to always be looking for an even lower price elsewhere so that they more than likely will not be around for long.
When someone comes along at Viper Logic that is this type of client, after several incidents of repetitive requests, we fire the client. It’s not because we don’t care, we don’t need the business, or because we don’t want to price our products and services competitively, because we do. However, there is a cost of doing business. And, if the cost of a client is costing you too much time or money (time is money), then in continuing to provide the best product, or service, and support, you need to steer clear of or fire the client in the best interest of your entire client base. Trust us, after more than 15 years of being good to all of our selected clients, we know that this same, constant, low-price requester of your time is going to share with their friends and co-workers about how bad you, your product, and your support services are. And, that is something, both now and in the long run, you would do better to eliminate from your business as rapidly as possible.
P-3: Place Defined
- Have you thought about the distribution of your idea?
- Have you chosen selective or exclusive distribution?
- Do you have inventory management for your idea?
- Does your idea need a distribution center and/or warehousing?
- Does your idea need to use order processing?
- How is your idea going to be transported?
P-4: Promotion Defined
- Are you going to sell your idea yourself?
- Are you going to hire a sales team?
- Where and how often will you be advertising?
- For advertising, will you be using (PR) Public Relations articles to industry publications, online press releases, mailed, blogs, newsletters, or an Email Marketing Service, like Viper Mailer (click here Email Marketing getting started)?
Promotion is the area that Viper Logic suffers the most in all of the 4 P’s points and definitions. We at Viper Logic truly do build some really technically advantaged software products. However, you can have the best, most advanced engineered (in our case) product, the best service, and/or support in your business niche, but, if no one knows about you, then it will remain the best keep secret to your potential clients.
This promotion topic is more than just spending a lot of money on advertising. Pay Per Clicks (PPC) campaigns is more about creating a viral epidemic. It’s necessary to be proactive to create the most efficiently grown business of your dreams.
Marketing basics and email marketing work together well. So, learn and apply the 4 P’s of marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. They will help you achieve a great email campaign and business growth success. |
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