21/09/18
MARKETING MIX:
- Traditional framework to help marketers plan your approach to marketing.
- NOT a checklist but a way to get you to think of how you can mix different elements together to produce an effective strategy.
- We have to develop these ideas for digital as now marketing is now much more a 2 way process
- Started with 4 p’s (McCarthy 1960)
Product, Place, Price, Promotion - Then 7 p’s (Booms & Bitner 1981)
People, Processes, and Physical Evidence
THE CUSTOMER IS EVERYTHING
Before you consider the different aspects of the marketing mix. It is important to remember what you’re using the marketing mix for:
- Building Customer Relations and growing your business (long Term)
- Social media and other digital opportunities (apps) have really expanded the opportunities for reaching the audience and can really add value to our brand, your product or service
- BUT, they need to be part of a wider strategy (having a social media page or app in itself is not enough!)
Product:
The Key is considering the product or service that you offer and how you can add digital value to this in order to offer interaction and engagment to the customer/audience:
Product – Apple back to school deal (buy a mac get a free pair of beats)
Enhances customer experience as they are more likely to come back after getting such good deal. Could do more advertising on social media
Service – Lloyds Bank – Everyday offers (Spend money at a certain store and get cash back)
They do social media adverts on FB, Twitter, Instagram
Customer is more likely to join a bank that has these sorts of offers.
The Extended product/Online value proposition (OVP). Consider how you can move beyond the core product or service. What can you use to stress your credibility as a company.
Current Digital Freelance OVP: Digital freelance provide small business digital marketing services in Brighton and across East Sussex with guaranteed results.
How I would change it: Digital Freelance provides digital marketing for small service business around the world (Add Contact us, About Us, Services Call to actions)
- If you have a product or service that you are offering the online presence can be crucial in terms of offering added digital value.
- Check your competition .
- Stress your strengths and ensure that you have a strong and distinctive online value proposition.
Price:
Online competion and price comparison sites have added pressure on companies to be as competitive as possible. Simple pricing to simple a concept now. Better to consider the price package. As well as the Basic price what else can be part of the price package:
- Discounts
- Add on’s and extra’s
- Guarantees and warranties
- Refund and return policies
- Order cancellation/amendment
Competitor analysis is important. This can be done manually or via sites such as –http://www.competitorpricewatch.co.uk/
Prices are under pressure, pricing structures are becoming more complex. It is crucial to get your pricing right. This doesn’t necessary mean being the cheapest (many market leaders are not the cheapest) but they do have added value. Keep checking the market and be aware the customer is always looking for value (price or added digital value).
Place:
This concept relates to the places we can acquire the product or service, the online marketplace. In relation to e-commerce you can either set up your own way of distributing your product/service(your own online shop. Or you can use a third party site (Amazon/ eBay/Etsy). You’re more likely to use one of these as a startup as people already visit those websites. It’s much harder to drive traffic to a new website.
Promotion follows place. – Data can be collected on your audience and your marketing can follow the customers using targetted ads. Who can you target?
- People who have visited your website
- Signed up for info/newsletter
- Abandoned a shopping cart
- Follow up people who have already bought from you.
Your choice of distribution models is crucial to success. You need to make sure your product is easily available. As such multiple places you can get a service or product is often seen as a good method with online ‘marketplaces’ used as a way of reaching a wider audience than simply using your own site.
Promotion:
A good way of thinking about this is to take the ‘promotional’ or communication mix and how this now applies to online communications.
Promotion = Free
Advertising = Paid promotion
Promotional Mix:
- Advertising – Display ads, PPC ads
- Selling – Online Shopping
- Sales promotion – Rewards, Online Loyalty Schemes
- PR – Mail Outs, Social Media Links
- Sponsorship – Sponsoring event and linking to this
- Direct Mail – Opt in email, Newsletters
- Exhibitions – Virtual Exhibitions
- Merchandising – Links to Retail Sites
- Packaging – Images of products
- Word of mouth – Social Media, Reviews
Promotion Case Study:
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola uses many different methods of promotion including Social Media posts, TV ads, Blogs, Youtube Videos and more.
They use their famous red branding and logo across all of their different marketing materials. They have been running a campaign where every bottle of coke has a name on it. Consumers want to buy a bottle with their own name on as it seems special for them (and even if you can’t find a bottle with your name you can buy custom-made bottles)
They sponsor many different sporting events including the FIFA World Cup which is a great way for even more people to see their brand despite the fact that most of the athletes that take part in the competitions won’t drink coca-cola themselves.
Currently, they are running a campaign where you can win a trip to Thorpe Park or Alton Towers by uploading a video of them dunking an empty coke bottle in a recycling bin on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #CokeDunks.
Coke also highlights their efforts to be environmentally friendly by posting a lot of blogs about how they work to help the environment and create sustainability. This creates the feeling among consumers that it is good to buy coca-cola products as they help sustain the environment.
Overall, Coca-Cola’s marketing is extremely successful as they synchronise their brand across all different platforms. Every campaign they run is across all of their social media channels as well as their website and TV adverts. They also have physical adverts everywhere from huge billboards to small displays in supermarkets.
Digital Freelance
Digital Freelance uses a variety of different marketing methods in our digital marketing. We create YouTube videos explaining some of the various different methods we use for marketing.
We use those videos inside blogs that we post with a bit more explanation as to what’s being talked about as well as creating social media posts on Facebook and Twitter with links to the blogs.
We run various different email nurture campaigns to people that have filled in a form on our website. Those emails are sent every 2 weeks and they are intended to keep us in the back of the recipients head so if they need marketing in the future they will come to us. We recently ran a campaign based on how to get the most out of Mailchimp. This consisted of Facebook ads, Landing pages, Blogs, and Videos all intended to get people to sign up for an initial consultation with us.
One way that we could improve is by potentially offering a referral discount (If you refer a someone to us then you could get 10% off your invoice).
Do not rush to simply be on social media. Ensure that you have an integrated strategy which has considered all elements of the marketing mix. If you get this right though you can save money (using for customer relations rather than telephone) but also in terms of audience –
- Boost awareness
- Brand connection and relationships
- Sales
- Quality feedback and data to help future planning
People:
Most businesses are social and have people selling to people therefore people are crucial but the audience expectations in terms of customer service can be seen to be rising all the time.
Web 2.0: Anyone can create content and post feedback on anything these days. Means companies have to be careful about what they put out and how they deal with customers.
Dave Chaffey suggests that your company web site should have a 90/10 ratio or service to sales pitch (In other words do not force your product on people)
Examples of services could be –
- Auto-responders – Can be Impersonal.
- Email/text alert – Seen as more personal.
- Live chat – Used more often these days. Some services work well however a lot of them don’t.
- FAQ’s – Stops you from having to deal with the same issues all the time.
- Customer reviews – Bad reviews will negatively affect public perception of your company
Keeping content fresh is the key way of connecting with your audience –
- Regular updates in terms of news/promotions
- Essential updates (price changes)
- Using CMS (Content Management System) to schedule mail outs
Physical Evidence:
Customers are looking for evidence of trust in your brand. Evidence can include –
- Ratings and reviews
- Refund policies
- Security icons
- Awards
- Endorsements
- Ethical policies
- News reports
- Trade or professional body membership.
- Full address and contact details.
Digital Freelance Evidence of trust –
- Ratings and reviews – Digital Freelance has 11 Google Reviews all 5 Stars.
- Refund policies – No refund policies but we guarantee results.
- Security icons – Our website is secure.
- Endorsements – There are many testimonials on the website.
- Trade or professional body membership. – We are an Infusionsoft Certified Partner.
- Full address and contact details. – There is a full contact page with our address (with a map) and Contact details.
Worlds End Pub Evidence of Trust –
- Ratings and reviews – None.
- Refund policies – None.
- Security icons – None.
- Endorsements – None.
- Ethical policies – None.
- Trade or professional body membership. – None.
- Full address and contact details. – Contact page with full address (including Map) and contact form.
Remember physical evidence can start online but it should be closely integrated with offline evidence. E.G. Quality delivery, branding in offices/uniforms etc.
Process:
Process often relates to the workflow related to your product. There are lots of parts of the process going on behind the scenes but the key thing is to get the process right in terms of the customer service.
Amazon makes the process of buying a product online extremely straight forward and user friendly. For example:
I looked into buying Marvel’s Spider-Man on Playstation 4 and documented my experience…
The availability check is very straight forward and obvious as it shows whether or not it is in stock underneath the price.
It also very clearly states the whole price including the shipping costs as it say £48.95 with free delivery. Placing an order is also very straight forward. There is a large yellow button on the right hand side of the page clearly for adding the product to your basket. You can also turn on 1 click ordering if you have an Amazon account. This is where all you have to do is click the button to order it straight away as it stores your credit card information and delivery address from previous orders.
You do need to have an Amazon account in order to buy a product from them, however. Once you get to the checkout there are many different delivery options which can be selected and they clearly state how long it will take to deliver the item next to them.
Once the order is placed you are sent a follow-up email with tracking details (provided the courier service has tracking functionality) and you are also sent an email once it has been dispatched.
An extra P? Partnerships:
Often partnerships are crucial for small digital companies to get projects off the ground.
Digital Freelance collaborates with an independent Web Designer in Colombia in order to create our website as well as our Latin America website. They also help with writing blogs in Spanish for one of our clients, Sariol Legal.
Summary:
The marketing mix is still relevant but you need to consider increased opportunities given by digital marketing.
Product – More online interaction to create additional value
Price – People not as willing to pay as much. Customer research can lead to increased competition.
Promotion – Consider the promotional mix and how you can use a variety of online methods as part of an integrated brand vision
People – Customer is key to success. Social media can help a company getting to know the company
Physical evidence – Quality of your site/online profile is essential for initial and return business
Process – Essential to have a process that works for the customer
(Partnerships – Building partnerships can really enhance your organisations profile and ability to meet demand)
The Reuben Bowers Apprenticeship Experience 
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