Suzie reported, “They didn’t change their marketing. This client came back from the fiscal edge by putting credit card operated vending machines in orthodontists offices.”
Suzie helps companies raise capital in tough times. She doesn’t pretend to be a marketing specialist.
I’ll come back to that company in a paragraph or two. Pardon me while I dust off some basics and add a little from my approach.
Marketing consists of more than the four Ps you probably learned in your business courses in college. I prefer a passel of them.
From beginning to end they are:
- Prospect Viewpoint What potential customers think, feel and believe about you
- Profitable Niche A focused, targetable portion of a growing market.
- Positioning A way to become unique and memorable in customer’s minds.
- Persona A Core of Trust wrapped ‘round by Product, Price and Passage (or distribution) encased in your Name.
- Promotion All the ways you can influence, convince and persuade people to look at your product or service on line and off line.
- Performance How you build trust, ongoing relationships as well as repeat and referral business.
- Perception Your reputation will be what the customer and the public decide it will be. This is your true “Brand.”
“Suzie,” I said, “I have to meet the genius that came up with putting vending machines with all the parts required in orthdontist’s offices. That is brilliant. In one stroke he reduced his warehouse inventory, shortened patient waiting time and with the use of credit card payment eliminated aging problems on his receivables. And talk about competitive! That is one of the best ways to lock out competitors I‘ve ever heard about. It is absolutely great marketing.”
“Marketing?” she asked.
“Yes, marketing. It impacts three of the four components of Persona. The product is still orthodontic parts but now they don’t have to be individually ordered. The unit Price can be the same or lower (while maintaining or increasing margins) because there is less handling at all levels of the Passage. This change makes it easier to match inventory to the market requirements and allows manufacturing to build on demand for known requirements to restock the vending machines.”
“Well,” she groused, “When you put it that way maybe it is marketing but they were just trying to survive!”
I replied, “And that is a new definition of Marketing. It is rethinking how you go to market so you can survive.”
Jerry Fletcher is a marketing strategist thoroughly conversant with that passel of Ps. Learn more at www.JerryFletcher.com
Jerry Speaks professionally on all the components of business survival See and hear about his presentations at www.NetworkingNInja.com
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