The Four Basic Principles of Marketing and Their Role in an Effective Marketing Strategy

Marketing is the fundamental social process which evolves within a society to facilitate the effective and efficient resolution of society’s needs for exchange of consumption values. Simply put it is the science or art of understanding what a group of consumers want and how to get it to them.
Behind every great company there is an exceptional marketing strategy in place. Every marketer has his/her own unique strategy but most marketing professionals agree on a few fundamental principles of marketing.

The 4 P’s of marketing

a) Product
The product that you sell can be a physical item or an intangible service. A product is evaluated by the degree to which it satisfies a need and provides value for a specific group of consumers. The product should satisfy a perceived need and offer the features and accessories that a consumer group demands, within the terms that a group demands.
When creating your product, you need to consider factors such as: Name, Packaging, Usage and warranty terms.

b) Price
The price principle refers to how much consumers pay for the product, and it is evaluated in terms of how the price maximises profit for the company. As prices drop, demand tends to rise but profit per unit decreases.
Some of the common pricing models; Cost-plus pricing (A fixed percentage is added to your cost of production) and Value based pricing (The price is set according to the customer’s perceived value of the product, this model is mostly used with the more expensive luxury items) Effective pricing maximises total profit for the company by balancing profit per unit with demand.

c) Place
The place principle considers the distribution channels i.e. where you will sell your product and how it goes to the market. Consumers can’t purchase products that wouldn’t reach them, so distribution channels are an essential part of the structure of production, warehouses, shipping and sale points that make the retail product available. Distribution channels are evaluated on ease of use and reliability, an important factor in making a product desirable and accessible.
Larger businesses, like manufacturer of consumer goods, may sell their products to a wholesaler who then distributes them to retail stores.

d) Promotion
The promotion principle is about communicating with consumers. It involves spreading the word out to potential customers. Advertising is the most well known form of promotion. It essentially makes use of the media.

Promotion can include anything from print and media advertising to direct selling and viral advertising (involves the spread of information from a customer). Each of these requires a deep understanding of the priorities and behaviour of that targeted group, to communicate efficiently with prospective buyers.

By combining the above four principles we form the “marketing mix” strategy. You must understand these fundamentals to formulate an effective marketing strategy.

Marketing strategy

A marketing strategy is the logic by which the business unit happens to achieve its marketing objectives. Designing a market strategy involves a few steps.

Market segmentation

This is the first step of planning a marketing strategy. The company needs to divide potentials customers into groups based on a characteristic that tells us the kind of product the customer is interested in.
The major ways to segment are geographic, based on location; demographic, based on family niche. Basically market segmentation allows us to determine niches in a market. Usually a company tends to segment the market more than once, e.g. First by country, then by state, then by income and then by family size.

Target Marketing

This occurs when the company examines the results from market segmentation and studies the various market segments to determine the segments to which the product will be most useful to.
When examining a segment you need to consider how fast it is growing, this can be done by looking at sales and growth rates.
There are other factors that you may need to consider as well. The number of competitors in a segment will greatly affect the profit margin that you can hope to make.
Last, you need to consider your company’s resources. You may find that some segments will take too much time or money to pursue, which will cut into your profit as well.

Product positioning

This is the manner in which the consumer sees your product in respect to other similar products available in the market. You need to examine your product and its competitors in the market and determine how it is different or better than the others. These differences could be better quality, lower price or a product that is more accessible to the consumer.
Out of the differences determined pick those that would appeal most to the targeted market segment and promote them. The product positioning you end up with should tell consumers why your product is the one that they should spend their money on.

The above mentioned aspects will definitely help your business grow. You should not assume that things such as marketing strategy are only for large companies, the size of your business does not affect your eligibility to form a marketing strategy, and it matters not whether you are selling your products on a website or a mall. Try using what you have learned in your planning, the results will not disappoint you.

Visit https://vpmarketingondemand.com for more information on market plans.