Thanks to all of the Ranchers and community members who attended our recent “Basics of Marketing” workshop. Please see below for key takeaways and high level concepts from DAY ONE! All of the C’s and P’s of marketing continue to work together and one must consider pulling multiple levers at once to ensure a clear marketing strategy.
5 C’s of Marketing:
- Company – who doesn’t love a good SWOT analysis? Going through this exercise helps you determine your company differentiation and value add while also learning what to avoid.
- Customer – segmentation is key, find out who is paying for your product and adjust your message and company decision making accordingly. Check out the VALS Types to discover customer personalities and further understand your target customershttp://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/ustypes.shtml
- Competition – what parameters do customers use to make decisions in your industry? This simple exercise should give you some perspective:
Exercise:1.Determine what two parameters are most important in your industry (that your company focuses on)2.Plot yourself first – where do you fit?3.Make a list of your competitors or substitutes to the side
4.Plot your competitors and substitutes on the chart
5.How are you different? This is where your marketing message should focus
- Collaborators – use care in solidifying partnerships, suppliers, clients and advisors/mentors. These parties will determine your external reach and help you along the way.
- Context – what are the impacts on your growth strategy?
4 P’s of Marketing (The Marketing Mix)1. Product – this is where market validation and market research come into play – you would hate to make the above decisions based on assumptions instead of fact.Key Questions to Ask:1.What am I going to offer?2.What pain or need am I fulfilling with my product?
3.What features will my product have? What is the right mix of features?
4.How are those features similar or different than those of my competitors?
5.How will it look and feel?
6.What will I call it? What does the brand look like?
7.How will I get it made?
8.What will it cost me to produce this product?
2. Place – where and why? Try this exercise.
3. Promotion – there are both web-based and traditional forms of marketing. Shocking as it may seem, traditional promotion is really on a roll! Make sure you also consider timing, location, competition, offers and design. 
4. Price – this is the hardest P! You must heavily consider the “value-add”, not just a mark-up for your product. Competing on the basis of price puts you in a hole that is tough to climb out of. I recommend reading: Dolan (1995) How Do You Know When the Price is Right?
