Combined with getting visibility and credibility actually getting your goods and services to your target clients is crucial if you’re to succeed – and remain – in business. This is the Place part of the 4 Ps of marketing.
I was reminded of this the other day when I had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours on a nearby beach after 6 hours of teaching marketing. As I lay there I heard a voice calling out and my mi
nd flashed back to when I was eight years old and on my first overseas holiday with my parents. We went to Mallorca – at the time an upmarket place to go on holiday. Each day a man would come along the beach calling out his wares although I can no longer recall what he was selling.
Fast forward a few decades and there I am on a beach in Split when a man comes by calling out something in Croatian which sounded like cockeriko … Actually he was saying kukuruza – corn-on-the-cob – which he wrapped in a napkin and spinkled with salt. From the times he walked back and forth it seems that hot corn-on-the-cob sells well. This surprised me since it wasn’t a chilly winter day but the height of summer (34C) !!
So… aside from feeling sad that I’m no longer that little girl on the beach with all of her life in front of her and my mum and dad are no longer here the next thoughts that arose were – yes, you’ve guessed – marketing and business thoughts. For me, the guy selling corn-on-the-cob was a great example of getting the products and services your customers want, where they want them, when they want them. And this all comes down to knowing who your target clients are and knowing as much about them as possible so that you can give them what they want, where they want it, when they want it.
Your business task for the day: Why not think about your own business and consider whether you’re doing this and if you’re not why not. Is it because you don’t know who your target clients are? Is it because you don’t know very much about them? Is it because their wants have changed and you haven’t kept in touch with them to realise this? Is it because the distribution channnels for your products are hard to enter for example getting a product onto a supermarket shelf or into a retail store?
What are you going to do about this?
You need to do something !! Your business success (and survival) depends on it!
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What a wonderful, short image of targeted marketing. Such a good image to help me think about who my target market is.
I have a hard time with the fact that I have at least 3 different target markets: for my writing, coaching on writing, and tutoring students. How do you deal with target marketing when you do not have enough time and you have too much product?
I understand Paul. I have three distinct income streams: translations & text revisions (www.GSPimpacts.com); marketing and business strategy consulting & teaching; helping business startups. That’s without mentioning various home study and offline courses that I market as separate entities.
I try to ensure that I don’t confuse people so on LinkedIn I tend to only talk about business strategies, marketing and startups; on Facebook things connected to The Business Launchpad. The translations side has always been WoM or me contacting potential clients.
To your question – I usually decide to market one thing for a while and then market another one dependng on how the fancy takes me. Totally against what I’d say to a client of course – I’d tell them to focus on one thing, become known for that and then add other services or products.