The Forgotten Ps of Marketing: A Dating Analogy
To get someone’s attention your dating profile needs to look and sound HOT. You need to know which of your attributes are going to work best to attract your target mate. To start a conversation. To talk to them in the right tone. To get to know them and build emotional connection, before you suggest a meet-up.
When it comes to the 4Ps - your dating profile is all about Promotion (marketing comms) and Product (what you're buying). But getting them on that first date - that's all about the right Place and the right Price.
When it comes to the 4Ps of marketing, Price and Place are often overlooked. Heck, they're often not even considered within the remit of the marketing team for many businesses. And yet these levers are a vital part of the marketing strategy framework and are not to be underestimated in terms of their power to take your brand from good to great.
Here are 6 tips to going from hot dating profile with your customer to developing a long-lasting relationship!
1. Don't message bomb then ghost.
Being stood-up is a lousy feeling so don't do it to your potential customers. Don’t blow money on a big comms campaign unless your brand is where your consumers want to buy. If there's a gap in your customer journey, your potential customers will fall into it - and perhaps even into the arms of another. You'll have done the hard work only for someone else to gain all the benefit.
At the risk of sounding a bit stalkerish, ‘turn up’ in multiple places where they happen to be and are most likely to be in the right frame of mind, so they have multiple chances to pick you up. They may even start to think it’s ‘fate’ you should be together.
- Use tools like cross-promotions to get dual sitings in physical stores/online (The Happy Egg Company has done this with Warburton's).
- Counter-top and free standing display units or shippers (examples below) can get you great standout and also make you available to pick up in more than one place.
- Programmatic ads can help you show up for people who have already browsed your brand are ready to buy.
- Ensure stock availability is also good before you launch your comms. Shippers can help address this by making sure you are ‘well stocked’ in a number of locations.
2. Show up looking even better than your profile pic
Be easily recognisable. It’s all about working those ‘distinctive assets’ (logos, colours, shapes, sounds specific to you) – wear them loud and proud across all your marketing touch points.
Stand out against the competition – you might have looked hot on your tinder profile but if you agreed to meet up at the gym are you drowned out by finer specimens? Packaging can look great in isolation, but how does it actually fair on-shelf, on an online market, or on a comparison website? Does your colour and style stand-out? If not, use the tools at your disposal to enhance your look in the place you'll be seen (shelf-ready packaging, digital ads, lifestyle images, logos, fonts, straplines and so on).
Arrive on your date impeccably dressed. Check the quality of your packaging material - is it fit for purpose, did you do transport trials? Because no one buys the dented can of beans or dog-eared pack because they worry the product will be damaged or substandard.
And not just impeccably dressed, but sartorially correct. Right place, right pack! Are you harnessing your product and place combo to best effect? Don't just let your sales team get whatever product they can listed in whichever retailer, or put all your products onto the same online market place - think about which products are best suited to which distribution channels and do the work to maximise and enhance.
3. Keep your options open
Whilst searching for the perfect partner, don’t be afraid to use a variety of dating apps. 70% of people go to Amazon at least once per month. Also platforms like Etsy and Notonthehighstreet. Fish where there are plenty of fish! Consider limited ranges in these places where people are literally searching for products like yours rather than trying to bring people to you at your own site or limited distribution outlets.
All’s fair in love - 70% of brand choice decisions are made at point of purchase. Find out or make an educated guess as to when your big competitors are going to be advertising. They are doing the work to bring people to your category or market. Usurp! Be there, stand out, look better. Have shopper comms running, pack promotions, strong search, so you are coming up first/alongside them. You may not be the brand they originally came to meet but you might be the one they go home with.
4. Know your worth and act accordingly
Price to reflect your worth - if you go low hoping for a bunch of one night stands to get you started, know that it's hard to roll back from that - people won’t want to pay your full price (looking at you Pizza Express). Equally don’t go so high you feel out of reach for your perfect match.
You can really understand your pricing dynamics by investing in price elasticity modelling or simulated shelf testing (so you can see how consumers react to and perceive the value of your product at different prices relative to competition).
If that's out of your budget range, conduct a simple consumer survey using the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Model. Or at the least do a comprehensive review of all your competitors' prices across different retailers, understand who your closest competitors are in terms of value perception and price relatively to reflect your respective quality.
5. Do you have shared values – can you grow together?
For a date to turn into a relationship you need to fit in each-other's lives and find common goals and values. Getting into your perfect distribution channel is a bit like that.
Too many brands march into a retailer demanding where they want to be and what they want to get out of it. Remember, you are moving into their place, where they have been a long time and have some strict house rules and other house guests.
Go in very clear on the value you are adding and mutual fit and benefit of you being there. Pricing strategy is critical to demonstrating how you will do that. If you are adding value by upgrading people from a less worthy opponent, your pricing needs to reflect that.
If you go in with a lower price than your competitors, you need to show you will bring new consumers into the category or encourage people there to buy more frequently and show you will make the buyer more money vs just move around or downgrading current sales.
It needs to be mutually viable. Understand the margins that retailers, wholesalers and market places expect. You also need to be making money from the start – don’t go too low to ‘get a foot in the door’ – you are unlikely to get a price increase later.
6. A bit of ‘wooing’ is great in the beginning but long-term relationships are built on more
Sometimes consumers need a bit of wooing to try a new brand for the first time. Promotions (not the comms kind - the sales ones) are a critical part of pricing strategy and brand growth. Particularly in terms of driving trial or (depending on your industry) to help you manage commodity prices, seasonality and general steady volume.
However, make sure you:
- Are really clear on your promotional objectives and use the right mechanics to reflect them (for example, shallow temporary price reductions (TPRs) can help to drive trial with your target audience vs multi-buy to ‘lock-in’ previous buyers or drive volume to a seasonal need).
- Keep price promotions relative to your price hierarchy. Look at what your competitors promote at. Ensure your promotions are relative. Understand what is ‘too low’ and will damage value perception – don’t go there.
- Don’t get hooked– excessive promotion damages brand equity and will make you commercially unviable. Want to investigate this more - here are some interesting case studies:
- Tyrrell's Drug of Promotion
- Les Binet on Price Promotions in a Recession
Ready to swipe right and make better use of your forgotten Ps to attract your growth audience? Get in touch and we'll tell you how we can help. And if you're not quite ready to make a first date, you can find our HOT profile here!
And if you've enjoyed our slightly tongue-in-cheek gallop through the forgotten Ps of marketing, you'll definitely enjoy this one - it's about Boobs!
