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What is marketing?

Increase your business profits by reading our summary of what marketing is. How you can use marketing to your advantage.

Marketing is sometimes thought of just being publicity and promotion, but this is just part of it.  It also includes the price of your products or service, who and where your products and services are available (place) and if it meets your customers needs (product or service).  The amount of time and money spent on each of these areas can vary from business to business.  A 5 Michelin Star restaurant may focus on the quality of their food, with less priority on promotion, whereas the kebab shop down the road may focus on price. Taking all of these into account will lead to satisfied, loyal customers, a growing customer base, popular products or services, increased turnover and more repeat/recommended customers.

How will marketing help my business?

Successful marketing results in stronger products, happier customers and bigger profits.  You can see why it is so important for every business.  It should be customer-driven in order to be effective. This will give you a good customer base.

How can I increase the success of my business?

Marketing your products or services in the right way will increase your customer base. Let’s take a look at each area in turn to find out how you can increase your customer base.

Product or service offered.

Products and services are bought by customers to meet a need.  This need may be practical (e.g. to clean floors), emotional (e.g. to feel good) or basic (e.g. to quench your thirst).  Your product or service may satisfy a need they didn’t even know they had! You could conduct research to find out what your customers want and then tailor your products or services to meet these needs.  The most successful businesses make what they can sell.  A better understanding of your customers will enable you to target publicity, sell more products and lose fewer customers. Questions to think about:

• What age group are your customers in?
• What is the male/female split?
• Where do your customers live and do they travel far?
• Is there an on-going relationship or do they just make a one-off purchase?
• How much do they spend each month/year?

From this information you can target your offers, promotions and advertising.

Price

How can you determine what to charge? Determining the price of your product or service can be affected by many things. Market research can help you determine the price or your product or service. Finding out what your competitors are charging can help you develop your pricing strategy. What is the value of the product or service you are offering i.e. does it save the customer a huge amount of time and effort? Is what you are offering seen more as an investment rather than a cost? Factors to consider:

• Supply and demand can affect the price of your products and services.
• A low price is often related to low quality.  Customers may prefer to pay more for an identical product because they think it is better than the cheaper one.

• Customers don’t always buy something because it is cheap, but because they need it, (you may pay more for a pint of milk from a corner shop because it is nearby and you don’t want to go all the way to the supermarket).

• Customers often buy things from a shop out of habit, because of the name/reputation of the business or the level of customer service it provides.  They may not always shop around for the best deal.

Place

Where your business is located can affect how many customers you get and whether they are one-off or regular customers.  A sandwich shop in the city centre may get more customers than one located in a village.  For some businesses, location is not an issue, collectors and enthusiasts for niche products may be willing to travel long distances. Taking the example of the sandwich shop, the village shop could get more customers by looking at the businesses located around them and then offer a delivery service.  This shows that there is always a way of taking advantage of your location to gain extra customers. I get lots of passing trade, why do I need to sell in any other way? If you solely rely on passing trade, you may be missing an opportunity to make more sales and to develop a relationship with your customers, thus turning them into regular customers.  See promotion for further ideas

Promotion

I already have a yellow pages advert, why do I need to advertise in other ways? Combining different promotion opportunities maximises publicity.  One technique will build upon the work achieved by another.  Someone who may not look in the yellow pages because they are sat in an office all day, may find it quicker to do a quick search on the internet to find a local business. Promotion is a way of telling people what you have to offer and persuades them to buy. It can be used to gain more customers, promote new products/services, provide a boost during quite/busy times, and promote your brand identity. Ways to promote and advertise.

• Local directories/yellow pages.
• Internet.
• Direct mailing.
• Adverts in the newspaper/local newsletters and directories.
• Posters/leaflets/brochures.
• Telesales.
• Free samples/packs.
• Incentives to increase recommendations from existing customers.
• Vouchers/coupons.
• Newspaper articles.
• Sponsorship.
• Radio adverts.
• Advertising/ writing articles for professional publications.

Which ever way you decide to promote yourself, bear in mind who your customers are and who you want to target.