Marketing is the profession that drives business growth, period. It is a holistic profession with many specialty sub-disciplines. The basic structure of marketing, when used properly, includes the classic four Ps of product, price, place and promotion.
This blog explores how a basic misconception about what marketing can do for a business actually leaves businesses short in their growth plans. Watch this video to learn about how marketing is the root of all business growth:
Marketing is not just advertising
Too many business leaders have reduced the robust idea of marketing to activities that focus heavily on only the promotional aspect, ignoring the other Ps. To make matters worse, online advertising has made it extremely easy to launch promotional activities on a wide scale but within required budgets and timelines, turning the Facebook or LinkedIn ad business into big business and pushing marketing to the back burner.
As Halmyre’s Ursula Green discusses in this video, marketing is about achieving business objectives, not about creating the next great ad:
It’s not that the wonders of digital advertising should be dismissed – internet ads have loads of benefits. They are immediate, offer a more precise reach than any other platform and are easily measured. It’s easy to understand why companies put more weight on their advertising and promotions than on other elements of marketing, but this shouldn’t be the case.
Growth starts with your unique value proposition
The ideal scenario is to bring back that mindset that product is the most critical of the four Ps. Businesses should not underestimate the importance of doing a deep dive into their unique value proposition (UVP). Establishing the UVP is not merely for the sake of filling up pages of ROI studies, business proposals or executive summaries. Having expert knowledge of products or services truly forces you to listen – and respond to – what your audiences want and need.
Getting to revenue: Focus on the exchange of value
The basic concept of the market is this: value exchange. All revenue comes when you do something of value (i.e., deliver products and services) that the market will pay for.
An organization’s value proposition statement is the strategic marketing tool that connects the organization’s strategy – goals, objectives, organizational mission and vision – to actionable go-to-market tactics. It is your elevator pitch. It’s what helps your organization connect who you are and what you do with what your audience (your market) wants and needs.
When you are crystal clear about what your target market wants, you can identify opportunities to provide products and services they will pay for. A value proposition is nothing more nor less.
While marketers often focus on promotions and advertising, we need to remember that marketing includes all of the four Ps of marketing – product, price, place and promotion. Focusing on product by creating a strong UVP for your business is a good way to ensure you are providing an exchange of value and getting to the root of business growth.
