Your Marketing Mix: The Importance of Pulling all the pieces together to go to market.

Marketing your business today is significantly more challenging as you attempt to bring together the many traditional and new mediums that are required to launch products and services into the market place. However it’s also never been more exciting!

With the explosion of social media, the internet and digital mediums the consumer has never had so much choice. This increasing availability of choice has had a distinct impact on traditional retailing and distribution models where only the most popular and most profitable products are carried to pay for the floor space. In today’s environment niche markets fuelled by ever increasing demand by the consumer for choice are becoming increasingly large and global in scale.

So how do you plan for this as a Small Business owner?

Business Owners are regularly bombarded with the need to develop a social media strategy, use affiliate marketing, search engine optimisation, create digital media on web sites to lift hit rates and commercialise websites through productisation, just to mention a few common elements. It’s all a mass of noise and after you somehow get to understand all the different options by having experts come along to help, you can finally get back to developing the traditional marketing mix, focussing on product development, price, promotion and placement. There is not much debate to be had around the merits of Internet Marketing and the economies of scale it can create locally and globally if your campaign generates traffic and converts.

But what about your traditional marketing mix, how do you plan to execute it? There is no doubt the internet is changing the way commerce is taking place but you still need to convert the sale, you still need to develop a relationship with business owners and the very people you are looking to sell your product or service to. The rubber still hits the road when you need to go out to your prospective client and get the deal done in most cases. I’m not suggesting that the internet won’t do that, but there is an old saying which is still very relevant today “people do business with those they know, like and trust” and therefore the sales skills and traditional marketing mix elements are still vital, infact I would suggest more vital then ever.

So what can you focus on to deliver results?

Develop a trade marketing plan!

Trade marketing has typically been used to influence distributors of products, wholesalers and retailers to ensure that products and services are being promoted and positioned favourably. In many cases the buyer of your products may not be the end consumer of your products and services.

If we look at selling to a retailer as an example we would need to consider the elements of price, promotion and positioning.

What pricing structure do you plan to use to influence the retailer to accept your product and place it in the best position possible to maximise awareness on shelf to your end consumer. Pricing structures typically cover, your list price, and should include any form of discounts that you are willing to offer based on the behaviours that your trade customer agrees to undertake. These could be volume rebates, shelf space payments or promotional rebates.

What promotional programs will you be pitching to the retailer and what is your compelling story that will convince them to give your product the positioning you need? Will you need to design and develop specific promotional programs and display units that will give the retailer a solution and make the products or services you are selling easy to merchandise? With the consumers looking for ever expanding choice and niche products you can expect that retailers will be chasing opportunities to meet this demand.

What type of products are you selling, do they need to be in a high traffic flow location because it is an impulse purchase or is it an everyday routine item that you want positioned in the best possible shelf location in one of the store aisle ways. In the trade package you pull together you would need to consider the type of argument and proposition that you communicate to the retailer that helps them link your proposition to their shoppers and increasing their in-store conversion rates. Show them the size of the prize for them and you can expect a successful sales call.

If your product or service stretches across multiple channels then you would need to consider the type of trade offers that are relevant to each channel. What you develop for Coffee Shops, Convenience Stores, Chemists, or Day Spa’s might be distinctly different based on the shopper and the key trade elements that drive commercial outcomes.

Developing your trade marketing plans and pulling together sales materials to really enable you to show your customer the value in your products and services and why your products and services will increase their conversion rates and generate income growth is more essential today than ever before given the amazing amount of choice that is available to consumers.

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