Do Business Well

The 4-Ps are a useful framework for designing e-Marketing strategies — and have the benefit that they are clear and familiar to most managers. Successful e-¹Businesses bring together the elements of the marketing mix into an integrated, offer representing value to the customer. This can be illustrated, for example by outlining aspects of the 4-Ps of the marketing mix of the office supplies company Quill (www.quillcorp.com).

Place

Customers are offered the convenience of easy ordering — not just by Web but’ via many other routes, with expert personal assistance readily available by telephone. We have personally tested the service and found it fast and reliable. particular benefit is the UPS (courier service) order tracker so that custom can track the delivery status of their order.

Product

Quill offers a wide range of office and computer supplies, furniture and speciality products. The main selling point is the very wide range available from stock - almost everything imaginable for the office. This is a ‘hypermarket’ -type approach, offering customers far more choice than would be expected from most traditional suppliers.

Price

Competitive, discount prices can be offered. Low price levels are sustainable because of the e-Efficiency of the business, and also the economies of scale arise from successfully selling large volumes.

Promotion

Quill is promoted by a wide range of integrated marketing communications of hich an affiliate programme and e-Newsletter are central.

WAYS TO GET MORE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEB SITE

• Get indexed by the major search engines
• Use metatags in html files
• Use a descriptive title
• Buy an advertisement on a top site such as Yahoo!
• Get into strategic partnerships — links to and from other busy sites
• Use offline publicity and advertising
• Be active on discussion groups, bulletin boards, chat rooms and Usenet
• Look for more information on specialist sites such as Yahoo! and Web- Promote

The concept of the 4Ps of the marketing mix may have a slightly old-fashioned ring it in the current climate of ‘new’ marketing. Nevertheless, the approach is still useful as ever as a framework for planning marketing strategy for the e-Business. esearching customers‘ wants, satisfying those wants with appropriate products d services, distributed conveniently, priced to reflect value, and communicating th customers about the benefits remains central to marketing planning.

The marketing mix is the blend of tools and techniques that marketers use to provide value for customers. It is most commonly simplified to 4Ps: Place, Product, Price and Promotion. Sometimes three extra Ps arc added: People, Process and Physical evidence - although in marketing planning these can be included under the ‘Promotion‘ heading. The marketing mix may also be expressed as the more customer-orientated 4Cs.

Place is a shorthand nickname to classify the elements of the marketing mix that marketers use to enable customers to access the benefits of a product or service (Convenience in the 4-Cs). Successful e-Businesses use IT-based systems to achieve this. The Internet puts the technology within the capability of small and medium-sized e-Businesses, rather than needing the very substantial investment in more traditional EDI. Selling by the Internet allows e-Businesses to cut out intermediaries such as wholesalers and retailers — disintermediation. On the other hand, many e-Businesses are using a range of new e-Intermediaries such as directories, e-Malls and^,/ electronic trading exchanges.

Product is a shorthand nickname to classify the elements of the marketing; mix that marketers use to provide a ‘bundle of satisfactions’ for customers. `Product‘ in the marketing mix embraces not just tangible products but also intangible services and augmented value (Customer benefit in the 4Cs).: The pure-play e-Business is at a disadvantage, owing to the difficulty of providing sensory cues such as olfactory and touch. On the other hand, the Internet has the advantage in selling information-based products such as market data where there is no need for a physical product.

Price is a shorthand nickname to classify the elements of the marketing mix that result in the costs to the customers of obtaining the benefits of product (Cost to the customer in the 4Cs). The Internet makes for more transparency of price information, and as a consequence, prices are tending to converge at lower levels. In practice, there are still only a few examples of suppliers that sell primarily on the basis of price, and price based buying services, succeeding in achieving long-term profitability.

Promotion is a shorthand nickname to classify the elements of the mar keting mix that marketers use to communicate with customers — both to make known the benefits of a product or service (e.g. advertising) and to gather information (e.g. marketing research) (Communication in the 4Cs), Three extra Ps — People, Process and Physical evidence — can be incorpo rated into Promotion. Successful e-Businesses often use offline advertising such as trade magazines and ‘click here’ sections of newspapers integrated with online marketing communications. Online methods include bann ads and pop-ups (often incentivized); paid-for listings in search engines and directories; and affiliate programmes. People issues are addressed by, for example, customer knowledge, enabling personalized communications about new products; and provision of alternative interactive personal communication such as by telephone. Process considerations are paramount in overcoming e-Businesses‘ problems with order fulfilment and delivery, Finally, physical evidence can help the virtual business to become more established, for example by using testimonials from customers and celebrities.

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• What Are You Selling?
• Advertising Loves to Entertain; Its Real Objective Should Be to Generate Excitement
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