The 14 Ps of Mixed Media Marketing - Part 7

Personas
This is one of the mixed media marketing Ps that has not yet been mentioned in marketing school. A persona is a representation of a typical character in your target audience. They are a group of people that you can label (for your own marketing purposes). The people that you want to appeal to should be captured in a persona or several different personas so that your brand can communicate more effectively with each group. It is a way to help you, the marketer, get into the mind of your consumers and understand them; what is important to them and what they like/dislike. Your mixed media marketing campaigns will be built specifically for people who fit within your personas.

A car dealer selling small cars can have several personas to cater for. One may be the elderly person who only needs to drive around town. A name for this persona may be “Nanas”. Another group may be young professionals, mostly females, working in the city. They cannot afford a large car or the petrol that goes along with it. A small car is also ideal for them to park in the city’s small spaces. This persona can be the “Chics” or “Fashionistas”.

Personas take market segmentation to a new level because it requires the marketer to learn about a particular type of person. It is more than demographics. We include lifestyle, values, views and other information to build profiles of the groups.

To get inside these personas and understand your market; read what they read, go where they go, do what they like to do, spend time with them and use what you have learnt to appeal to them in your marketing. To relate to your customers and market successfully you must be able to understand their personas.

This is not a new idea; it’s a fundamental of targeted marketing.

Online Marketing News

Spending on online marketing continues to grow in the midst of the recession. While other advertising channels such as radio, newspaper and TV have experienced decreased advertising spending, a report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau in partnership with PwC confirms NZ businesses are investing more and more of their marketing budget online. Some of the highlights from the 2009 1st quarter report are:

• Spending on Internet advertising increased 7.99% from the same quarter in 2008.
• $49.26m was spent on online advertising in Q1 2009
• It grew 2.14% from the previous quarter.
• Online advertising represented 8.3% of New Zealand's adspend in 2008.
• Search advertising comprised of 38% of New Zealand's online advertising expenditure with $18.77m spent in Q1 2009.

Businesses are getting smarter with their budget and are finding that online is the best way to go. It is accountable and flexible giving you measurable results and more ways to distribute your messages.

For a summary of the report see the IAB website.

The 14 Ps of Mixed Media Marketing - Part 6

Promotion
This classic P is central to marketing. It is not interchangeable with “marketing”. It needs the guidance of a marketing strategy for it to be effective. Promotions are programs or campaigns designed by the marketing strategy with the aim of achieving the marketing objectives. Usually this means an advertising or PR campaign and running specials or having special events.

In mixed media marketing, promotion is taken online and offline. There are innovative ways of taking traditional promotional ideas and implementing them online, in an environment where the responses are accurately measurable and the promotion can be easily modified. However, offline promotion is also important and complements online promotion.

• It is easy to add discounts to your online store with the right software or maybe just offer specials to loyal customers.
  
• Cheaply and conveniently distribute coupons and special offers using email or announcements to fans and followers.
  
• Public relations are best performed online where your brand can interact using two-way communication.
  
• Online advertising is also the most flexible and can be done on a low budget.

These are just a handful of the possible benefits of Promotion using mixed media marketing. If your offline promotional efforts are doing great, then continue using them. But look for ways to freshen them up. Integrate them online.

If you are a retail, B2B, vertical, hospitality, factory or website-based business; think of ways that you can promote more sales. What can you do to move more product? In times like these, every business needs to change something. Re-think your promotions and how your brand interacts with the market.

The 14 Ps of Mixed Media Marketing - Part 5

Precision
One of the greatest advantages of using a mixed media marketing approach for your advertising is the ability to target your market precisely. Online advertising is the only real precise form of advertising. Traditional advertising is a very rough estimate in comparison. If you want to reach women who are 25-35 years and earn between $30,000 and $50,000 and interested in the health of their pet, you can online! And it will cost you only a fraction of what it would to advertise in a pet magazine or women’s magazine! What’s more is that you will get a direct response and the results are available almost instantly!

How accurate do you think the readership, viewer or listener figures are? How targeted are the commercials you see or hear to your needs?

We are overloaded with irrelevant messages – even online. The Internet Age led to the Information Age and now we are in the Attention Age where advertisers are competing for attention. Our local newspaper is still pushing the message “use a medium that will reach the most people” to small-medium local businesses! This works for the masses that need to choose a mobile company and who want to see the latest Toyota but the masses won’t enroll in a teaching degree or buy luxury home floor plans.

If you know your customers well enough you should be advertising precisely to them. Avoid wasting your precious marketing budget.

It is easy for us to guarantee your advertising will work and generate a profit because we only advertise to where your customers are when they want you. This is Precision!

The 14 Ps of Mixed Media Marketing – Part 4

People
This P has been touted as one for the services industries. However, mixed media marketing does not see any reason why this should not be applied to all marketing. People are always integral. It is people that we target and motivate to respond to our marketing efforts. The behaviours of these groups must be understood by you, the marketers and the business.

The People that must be considered in mixed media marketing are:

• Employees – what are their attitudes towards the company? Are they being used to their potential in their strengths? How do they interact with customers?
• Sales and representatives – are they recreating the desired representation of the company? Are they passionate about the product? What feedback are they receiving from the market?
• Target market audience – what do they need? What is important to them? What message are they receiving from you? What are they thinking? What are their options?
• Consumers – are they satisfied? What are their perceptions having purchased from you?

Those People who are internal need to be able to add value to the product or service experience that you are offering. You can only know this when you have investigated the issues and perceptions of these groups.
Those People who are external and are interacting with your brand or company need to be communicated to effectively about what your business can offer. You can only know this with marketing research. It will reveal how people are receiving and responding to your marketing and the perceptions in the marketplace.

Your mixed media marketing success depends on your ability to win People.

The 14 Ps of Mixed Media Marketing – Part 3

Product
The original 4 Ps of the marketing mix are still applicable today in mixed media marketing. However, we look at Product differently than in the old school of marketing.

The old school of marketing analyses:

• Product innovation, features, upgrades
• Product differentiation, comparison, competitors
• Product variation, lines, flavours, colours

Product was a function of the product development team; the marketers where then responsible for finding a market that would buy it.

Mixed media marketing analyses:

• How a product can solve a market’s problems
• The perception of a product through marketing research
• How the product performs and is received in the market place

The new focus is on the market. Mixed media marketing works in a market place where customers choose to buy your product and are not sold to. This is how your customers purchase today.

The 14 Ps of Mixed Media Marketing – Part 2

Personality
This is part of a review of your company, brand and website. Some of the things that you will need to look at to evaluate your company’s personality are:

• What impressions and feelings does the market have towards your brand? (primary marketing research will tell you this)
• What are the characteristics, qualities and values of your brand and company?
• How are these communicated to the market?

Analysing and developing the personality of your company, brand and website is important in controlling and understanding your marketing mix. You will learn what people think about your company and industry with the goal of developing these ideas into more desirable perceptions of your brand.

It does not make sense to introduce a marketing plan of any type without an understanding of what the market thinks about your brand. With this information, you can focus your strategy on what your company needs to work on, what your market wants and the type of brand personality your market wants to buy from. This is especially important if you are selling online and rely on an ecommerce store.