A Crash Course in Marketing
Erin got me thinking last night about Marketing. I remember very little from my marketing courses, but the four P's come to mind. Those P's are as follows: Product, Placement, Pricing, and Promotion. I really do hope I have them right because these are the ones I'm going to use. We'll start at the logical choice, Product. What is a product? A product is a good or service that satisfies a perceived need. I hope Erin doesn't mind, but I'm going to use her story as an example.
Erin wants to put out a chapbook. A publisher got wind of this and offered her their product. The product she was most interested in was beyond her price range. This was an excellent ploy by the publisher for a number of reasons. We'll come back to this in a minute. Placement is our next item. The internet allows us to place our product on the customer's doorstep. Under normal circumstances, we can charge a different price, our third item, depending on the outlet used. For example, a convenience store is probably going to charge you more than the grocery store for the same product. The price is based on convenience of attainment. Price is also a function of supply and demand (just look at gas prices).
Promotion comes in all shapes and sizes. We have coupons, rebates, sales notices, direct mail, and a whole world of others. Now, let's go back to the publisher. The publisher used email (similar to direct mail) to contact a potential customer. He found out about a possible need for his services. By placing himself in the customer's inbox, he even has an opportunity to mold the customer's need. It may well be that Erin didn't know she needed high-gloss paper until she was told it was part of the more expensive package. So, we have a potential need that we can subtly change. As we change this need, our price might become more attractive. This would especially be true if we offer something different from the next guy.
This is not to say that any of these factors are mutually exclusive. They actually play very heavily on each other. Email is such a brilliant way to accomplish this: placement and promotion rolled into one. We don't even have to list a price for our product in the email. We simply need to grab the attention of our potential customer and send them to our site or our phone number. Direct mail has a very low success rate, but for the cost involved, a very low success rate can be quite successful indeed. I wonder what the rate is for email.
There's a storm coming, but I hope we think about some of this...
Erin wants to put out a chapbook. A publisher got wind of this and offered her their product. The product she was most interested in was beyond her price range. This was an excellent ploy by the publisher for a number of reasons. We'll come back to this in a minute. Placement is our next item. The internet allows us to place our product on the customer's doorstep. Under normal circumstances, we can charge a different price, our third item, depending on the outlet used. For example, a convenience store is probably going to charge you more than the grocery store for the same product. The price is based on convenience of attainment. Price is also a function of supply and demand (just look at gas prices).
Promotion comes in all shapes and sizes. We have coupons, rebates, sales notices, direct mail, and a whole world of others. Now, let's go back to the publisher. The publisher used email (similar to direct mail) to contact a potential customer. He found out about a possible need for his services. By placing himself in the customer's inbox, he even has an opportunity to mold the customer's need. It may well be that Erin didn't know she needed high-gloss paper until she was told it was part of the more expensive package. So, we have a potential need that we can subtly change. As we change this need, our price might become more attractive. This would especially be true if we offer something different from the next guy.
This is not to say that any of these factors are mutually exclusive. They actually play very heavily on each other. Email is such a brilliant way to accomplish this: placement and promotion rolled into one. We don't even have to list a price for our product in the email. We simply need to grab the attention of our potential customer and send them to our site or our phone number. Direct mail has a very low success rate, but for the cost involved, a very low success rate can be quite successful indeed. I wonder what the rate is for email.
There's a storm coming, but I hope we think about some of this...
posted by Vickie at 9:33 PM
3 Comments:
OMG I MIND! Get this off here!!!
Ok just kidding :P
Yeah, you're right, at least with direct mail, junk mail looks like junk mail and I can throw it away without opening it lol. This looked like a legitimate email (not to say it isn't legitimate, but you know what I mean.)
And yes he offered me things I didn't know I needed, that now, I really THINK I need, even though I probably don''t haha.
Regardless, Unless he's going to give me about a 80% discount or some such thing ( I found out that the $1600 isn't even the "type" of book I'm looking for, the one I actually "need" is $2400) then he can convince me I need the sun and moon and that he's got them to offer... my pocketbook rules the roost :)
Oh, it isn't 'planned' to be a chap - I'm going for the real thing, but then like I said, my pocketbook will decide all that!
Speaking of direct mail...
guess what was in my mailbox this afternoon? Yup, a copy of their rates, and a contract for me to fill oout should I decide to use them. lmao I haven't even once contacted them except to reply to their 2nd email to say "Um, I didn't submit a manuscript or enquire about your services"
I think this borders on stalking, or, um.. well ok maybe just high-pressure sales.
Oh, it is probably borderline high-pressure sales. And the best part about it, one person can do this pitch to a great many people. Technology makes it so easy these days.
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