4 Basic Marketing Principles

1.  Targeting

It’s better to have a single, well targeted bullet than to spray randomly all over the place. It’s more efficient and less wasteful – of both resources and time.

In practice this means getting to know your market and what they want and need (which may not always be the same thing). Then it means designing or adjusting your products appropriately.

     2.       Be in it for the long haul

Marketing works over time, and if you keep building on it, can go from strength to strength. It’s not

something you can just do a short burst of and then leave it forevermore. It should also have a many pillared approach, rather than relying too much on a single ‘prong’. Look at all the alternatives that are available to you, including: social media, website promotion, direct mailing, print advertising, networking etc.

   3.       Focus on benefits, not features

People don’t care that a car has a state of the art alarm system, they care that the car isn’t going to get stolen. They don’t care if they website is W3C compatible or future proof, they want to know that it’s going to improve their bottom line and not be a money sink.

In summary, don’t focus on the features of your products and services, focus on the tangible benefits they bring to your customers.

  4.       Be consistent and specific

Don’t try to be all things to all people, a constantly changing chameleon. By spreading yourself too thin, you’ll end up appealing to nobody instead. It’s better to decide what your brand represents, whether that’s based on your own intrinsic principles or what you’ve ascertained your market wants, and stick with it.

Click here to read about Chelsea Singh.

The 4 Ps of the Marketing Mix

You’ll sometimes hear business people talk about the 4 Ps, or the marketing mix. These 4 Ps are: Price, Place, Promotion and Product. Let’s look at each of these in a bit more detail.

The Right Product

The product has to have the right features and benefits to appeal to the customer and meet their needs. If there simply isn’t a desire for that product then the best marketing in the world isn’t going to sell it.

The Right Price

The price needs to be right from two points of view – the customer’s and the seller’s. From the customer’s point of view, the price has to be low enough to be affordable, but not so low it gives the impression of poor quality. The seller has to choose a price that will attain the optimum balance between sales volume and profit margin.

The Right Place

Products have to be in the right place at the right time. A good example of this is umbrellas when it’s raining and ice creams when it’s very hot. If the product isn’t there when the customer feels the need for it, it won’t get sold.

The Right Promotion

You could have the best product at a great price, and be in the right place, but promotion is still necessary to give that final edge over the competition and drive enough sales to make a product profitable. Promotion can take many forms and will usually have a multi-pronged approach.

Click here to visit the Chelsea Singh Investment website. 

Inspiration Quotes About Goals

"Who aims at excellence will be above mediocrity; who aims at mediocrity will be far short of it."
Burmese Saying

"Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another."

John Dewey

"Your goal should be just out of reach, but not out of sight."
Denis Waitley and Remi Witt 

"A goal is a dream with a deadline."
Napoleon Hill 

"Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor, upon which one walks as a matter of course and prescriptive right."
Aldous Huxley

"The virtue lies in the struggle, not in the prize."
Richard Monckton Milnes

"It is not enough to take steps which may some day lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

For more information about Chelsea Singh as an business investor, visit his website.