At Silver Shade Group, we help our clients with all different kinds of marketing solutions. Sometimes we edit or create print collateral, sometimes we write digital content, and sometimes we create brand or product launch strategies. In every case, the work comes down to the same basic concepts and questions. Who is my customer? What do they want to buy? How can I get my products in front of them at the right time? How do I price my products and services so that those customers will make a purchase? If you can answer these questions, you're on the path to a successful product launch, brand refresh, website update, or strategy session.

In marketing courses, you learn a lot about Marketing Mix and/or the 4 Ps of Marketing - Price, Product, Promotion, and Place. These four basic marketing fundamentals are incredibly important for any business, but they're especially helpful to understand when you're just starting out. Think of each element of the marketing mix as a lever that you can pull to grow or improve your business. When you consider each element and determine whether to make adjustments, look at each 'P' from you customer's perspective.

Price - Price is fairly simple to understand. You can adjust the price of your product and the market will respond accordingly. Price and sales have an inverse relationship. That means that typically if you raise your price, your overall sales will fall. Sometimes they will fall only slightly and your overall revenue will still increase. If you decrease your prices, your overall sales will usually increase. If your competition reacts to your price changes, this will also affect your sales revenue.

Product - Product is the actual product or service you sell. If you make changes to the product features or assortment that you sell, you should expect to see a change in sales. Are your customers willing to pay for the product features you offer? Do they want to pay for all of the services included in your packages? Offer the features that your customers want and they will reward you with their business. You'll also want to consider your competition here. Differentiate your products and services so that your offering is unique in some way.

Promotion - Promotion includes all of the ways that you try to reach your audience. Your website and your social media accounts are promotional vehicles. If you do media or blogger outreach, these are also promotion. The levers of your business can be used together as well. You can combine promotion and price to offer a discount to attract new customers or reward loyal customers.

Place - Place is the location that your customers buy your products and the method by which you get them there. This can be your salesperson, the physical store or boutique that someone else owns or your own online store. The more of your distribution chain that you own and control, the more opportunities you have to improve the process. You can delight your customers with faster deliveries or with user-friendly packaging on the shelf.

Experiment with the marketing mix for your business by changing a small group of marketing elements at a time until you find the combination that works best for your customers. Your business should evolve over time to best meet the needs of your customers. Test one lever or a couple of levers to help your business grow.

We can help you create a marketing strategy to leverage each of the 4 Ps for your business. Contact us to learn more about our marketing consulting engagements.