The 14 Ps of Mixed Media Marketing - Part 11

Perception
Marketing can be seen as essentially the management of how people perceive things. Much of marketing is about creating and shaping an image in the customer's mind. That is why it is important to monitor the perceptions held the marketplace AND of the company.

How does your company perceive opportunities and threats? The way you and your company perceive the current and foreseeable economic climate will have a massive impact on how you will do business today. How open is your company to new marketing ideas? How much research is needed? What do you expect from your marketing efforts? Is the company complacent or fixed in its ways? The way the brand and products are marketed is greatly influenced by the perceptions of the company.

How does your target market perceive your company, products and brand? What do people like about your brand and products? What don’t they like? Why do they choose you and why do others choose the alternatives? Customers form perceptions of the people and brands they do business with. It is the marketers job to align these perceptions with the desired perceptions that the brand should have. It is also the responsibility of each member of the business to create these perceptions as they interact with customers. Whether it be through a marketing campaign, face-to-face, on the phone, email, or online communications such as blogs, social networking or your website.

Market perceptions should be tracked in marketing research.

Perception is built from the personality of the brand, the people who take in your message, the qualities of your product and the effects of your promotion. However, placements, personas and price can also influence perception. We can establish another square of the Attractum® diagram.

The 14 Ps of Mixed Media Marketing - Part 10

Price
Price from the traditional 4 Ps of marketing is still relevant today. Pricing strategies have evolved from loss leader pricing, penetration pricing, price skimming and differential pricing strategies. Because it is so easy to do comparison shopping now, people are looking for a deal. Value pricing is more important than all of these.

People will pay more for an item if they can perceive the value in it. What would your market pay for your product? If you are marketing it correctly, selling your benefits, you will often be able to charge more than what a customer says they would pay. Common benefits are convenience, ease, uniqueness, skill, experience, leadership and so on.

The price you put on your products and services will also cause a connotation in different markets. A low price can be seen as a bargain and obvious choice or poor quality and amateur. A medium price can be perceived as reasonable and fair or average quality and not spectacular. A high price can indicate a rip-off or excellent quality and exclusivity.

The message is to make pricing decisions according to the market that you are targeting. You do not need to care about what other markets think. The same price cannot appeal to all markets. This is why there are different brands selling similar, comparable products at different prices. In time, if your pricing is consistent, your brand will connote a certain price bracket in customers mind.

The 14 Ps of Mixed Media Marketing - Part 9

Pliable
Marketing pliability may have come too late for some businesses. Your marketing plan must be flexible to changing market conditions. 2008 and 2009 have been most volatile. Unfortunately, many businesses that have sunk in the previous 12 months and that will go bust in the near future should really attribute their failure to failing to adapt to market conditions.

The ability to adapt is fundamental to survival. In marketing and business, survival does not happen by holding on, it happens because of change. How can a business expect to thrive by doing what it always has done when the economy changes? It cannot. It must change to meet the market and economic climate. This is why the word “climate” is used. Businesses must adapt to the environment.

Similarly, if a new opportunity is found, you may need to shift and change your strategy to make the most of it. Market research will reveal opportunities. Deciding to pursue an opportunity will change the marketing plan.

Marketing plans are meant to be implemented to plan and to schedule. However, if the market is changing for better or for worse, then adjustments to the plan must be made. Pliable marketing will allow for these changes.

You can make your marketing strategy pliable by not being locked into long-term contracts with advertisers or buying into inflexible advertising like expensive printed directories. Yes, a $6000+ ad in the Yellow Pages is expensive for any business; especially when more people are searching online for local services. The message is inflexible, nothing can be changed for a year and often the ad is out of date before the next edition. This is the trouble with traditional media, it is very hard to change and update.

If there was a sudden market-shift that had your customers buying an alternative to your product, how would your business take on that change? How would your marketing change? What markets would you need to pursue? Continuous marketing research will keep you on top of the trends so you have more time to react and be flexible.

The 14 Ps of Mixed Media Marketing - Part 8

Placements
Be in the right place at the right time and you are guaranteed results. The mixed media marketing approach opens you up to more placements than traditional marketing. This is important because people are spending more time online on the Internet than they did watching TV, reading newspapers and magazines or listening to the radio. If you are not easily found online, you are missing out on a huge obvious market share.

Placements consider where exactly your brand can be found; on what medium, in what context, at what time. This will determine if you are reaching your market. It is essentially ensuring the distribution of your marketing is effective.

If you are on the radio, you would have your ad on radio stations that your market listens to. You should also make sure the timing is correct. What times of the day does your audience listen? What parts of the newspaper do they read? What other ads and news are around your placement?

Target marketing is about making the right placement decisions. Mixed media will take this online. Where do you customers search? What do they search for? What websites do they visit? Where do they spend time? Use this information to find the best placements. This is how we can guarantee results.

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