How to Differentiate Decisevely
How to Differentiate Decisively with Your Marketing Mix
Excerpt from the highly-rated new book "The Ultimate Guide to Consulting in the Networked Age' by John Watson
When I first studied consumer behavior and marketing in the 80's, differentiating your business from the competition all come down to choosing which of the 5 Ps of the marketing mix you were going to build your reputation on – Price, Product, Place, Promotion and People. Sometimes other terms such as service and experience are substituted for the people category. In the pre-internet day most service levels and customer experiences were via personal interactions with a salesperson or a consultant. Whereas today clients have many experiences with our virtual stores, websites, blogs, social media pages and form opinions based on the service level of automated accommodation and travel booking sites and the like.
In almost all cases small and medium enterprises find that it is impractical to successfully implement a marketing strategy that seeks to build a reputation in more than one category of the marketing mix. Invariably trade-offs are needed.
So when it comes to your marketing strategy it is best to select one category that you will build your reputation on and this becomes your point of differentiation. You want to become the go to firm in your location and field.
Logically you should select a category that you have control over, offers a value proposition for your clients, and that you are confident that you can deliver.
If you are a financial advisor, then it would be impractical to try to compete on product as the performance and design features of investment products are not things that you can control. If, as an investment advisor you seek to build your reputation on product performance, you will quickly lose credibility as clients compare their fund performances over-time with the performances of products that friends of theirs have invested in, or simply read the published investment performance league tables.
Customer experience, or service (that in the old days, was the people category of the marketing mix) and quality control within professional practice consulting firms are viable marketing strategies.
Place can also be a viable strategy, think for example of the mobile mortgage broker that happily meets you at your office or home.
Price leadership can also be a successful strategy, particularly if you are a low cost provider working out of your home office competing with professional practices with expensive CBD office rentals to pay.
So you need to decide where in the product mix you can best build your reputation on a point of differentiation. Once you have decided, go and differentiate decisively and relentlessly!
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-...
Connect with me on Twitter - @johnpwatson5
Excerpt from the highly-rated new book "The Ultimate Guide to Consulting in the Networked Age' by John Watson
When I first studied consumer behavior and marketing in the 80's, differentiating your business from the competition all come down to choosing which of the 5 Ps of the marketing mix you were going to build your reputation on – Price, Product, Place, Promotion and People. Sometimes other terms such as service and experience are substituted for the people category. In the pre-internet day most service levels and customer experiences were via personal interactions with a salesperson or a consultant. Whereas today clients have many experiences with our virtual stores, websites, blogs, social media pages and form opinions based on the service level of automated accommodation and travel booking sites and the like.
In almost all cases small and medium enterprises find that it is impractical to successfully implement a marketing strategy that seeks to build a reputation in more than one category of the marketing mix. Invariably trade-offs are needed.
So when it comes to your marketing strategy it is best to select one category that you will build your reputation on and this becomes your point of differentiation. You want to become the go to firm in your location and field.
Logically you should select a category that you have control over, offers a value proposition for your clients, and that you are confident that you can deliver.
If you are a financial advisor, then it would be impractical to try to compete on product as the performance and design features of investment products are not things that you can control. If, as an investment advisor you seek to build your reputation on product performance, you will quickly lose credibility as clients compare their fund performances over-time with the performances of products that friends of theirs have invested in, or simply read the published investment performance league tables.
Customer experience, or service (that in the old days, was the people category of the marketing mix) and quality control within professional practice consulting firms are viable marketing strategies.
Place can also be a viable strategy, think for example of the mobile mortgage broker that happily meets you at your office or home.
Price leadership can also be a successful strategy, particularly if you are a low cost provider working out of your home office competing with professional practices with expensive CBD office rentals to pay.
So you need to decide where in the product mix you can best build your reputation on a point of differentiation. Once you have decided, go and differentiate decisively and relentlessly!
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-...
Connect with me on Twitter - @johnpwatson5
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