Can Marketing Really Be This Simple
December 6, 2007
Today Chance (our six-year-old budding entrepreneur) announced he had a ‘great idea’ to make money. He planned to sell water. Not just any ordinary water, but cold water. He also had a definite target market in mind - hot, sweaty, thirsty runners. He knew who he did not want to sell to - relatives, family and anyone who is not hot or thirsty.
Could marketing really be this simple? Is it possible to distill it down to a recipe that even a six-year-old can use?
Well, yes … and no.
Marketing Ingredients
1. Product or Service - know exactly what you sell. This should not be confused with what you think you sell or the deliverable. All the time companies think they are in one business and find out later they are really in another. Within this offering is also your messaging. The two go hand-in-hand. One without the other just doesn’t work. Chance was pretty clear - he sells something to make someone who is hot feel better. That means he’s not in the water biz.
2. Target Market - This is the group of people who need or want what you are selling. This group does not include the people that might buy what you are selling one day. So let’s say that you are selling $500 stilletos and you want to get an idea of how large your target market is. Some people might say, “Well, there are X million of women, that’s our target market.” Could be. Not likely. Go deeper and really hone in on your target. Do the research so you truly know who that market is, where they live, where they play, what they care about, who their best friend is, why they buy, etc. In Chance’s case… it’s functional. The person is hot, they are thirsty and they aren’t near a place to get water. Pretty easy.
3. Marketing Media - So how do you link up 1 and 2? How is your target going to get to know your product or service? That’s the crafty ingredient that comes in many flavors, shapes and sizes. This is what most people call “marketing” - it’s the sizzle that they believe sells the steak. I believe that you are only going to have the sizzle that sells that steak if you know how the person likes to eat their steak and if they eat steak at all. Media is a blend of lots of ways to communicate with your target market and includes:
* Advertising
* Direct Mail
* Internet Marketing
* Public Relations
* Client Relations Marketing
* Relationship Marketing
It includes a whole lot more than this when you slice and dice these areas. I would say that Chance’s strategy to only sell to runners who ’walk past our house’ is a limited media issue. He could expand it and easily hit more runners if he set up a stand along a running path. He might even expand his target market to athletes who are hot and thirsty and pick up some customers at a soccer field.
Is marketing easy? The truth is it can be, but you must be willing to do the work to understand the basics and the foundational parts so that when you put the ingredients together you have a recipe for success!
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