Marketing and selling are interconnected yet distinct concepts. Marketing encompasses all aspects involved in delivering a product or service to customers, including development, pricing, place, and promotion.
Sales primarily focuses on place and promotion, to ensure that the location and method of selling are suitable for the target customers.
Marketing is a comprehensive term for the coordinated process of bringing a product or service to customers. Marketers use their understanding of the target customer to shape their marketing strategy using the four Ps:
- Product: Determining how to develop the product.
- Price: Establishing the appropriate pricing for the product.
- Place: Deciding where and how to sell the product.
- Promotion: Planning how to promote the product.
These four elements together form the marketing mix. It is crucial to ensure that the leading product is appropriately priced, strategically placed, and effectively promoted to suit the target market.
How marketing sets you up for success
Sales is about place and promotion
Sales comprise two essential components:
- Place: whether to sell through a wholesaler, a retailer, or directly to the end consumer.
- Promotion: the decisions you make regarding sales, public relations, and advertising.
Both place and promotion are integral aspects that should align harmoniously in your overall marketing plan. For instance, you may initially opt to sell your product or service directly on your own website to maximise profits. However, if you find that advertising and attracting customers to your website incur excessive costs, you might reconsider and consider utilising a wholesaler or retailer.
Before making promotion decisions, even for common strategies like special offers or discount vouchers, it is crucial to assess your entire marketing mix. Ensure that the promotional activities are suitable and aligned with the nature of your product or service.
Selling in all the right places
Find the best way to promote your business
The influence of market research
Marketing plans revolve around the marketing mix, and to maximise the effectiveness of each element, marketers begin by conducting market research in various critical areas.
Customer research
Marketers conduct market research to assess customer demand for a new product and identify target markets. This allows for more effective marketing of products to the right customer segments.
One common mistake businesses make is assuming that their product or service will appeal to everyone, which is never the case. Instead, every offering has its own unique appeal to specific types of customers and demographics. It is more cost-effective to focus on those customer types to achieve success.
The key lies in accurately identifying target markets through methods such as surveys, discussion groups, and other commonly used market research techniques.
Expand your market
Once you’ve been in business for some time, you might consider broadening the scope of your operations, the “place” element of your marketing mix. It’s possible that you desire a larger customer base to fuel your business growth. You might also aim to reduce dependence on a few markets, thus diversifying your risk. Or you may be interested in providing a slightly modified product or service that better caters to a distinct market.
Grow in New Zealand
You could expand domestically. Do you already have a store in Christchurch? Why not consider opening another one in Wellington? Expanding within the same country offers the advantage of being familiar with the culture, language, and legal framework. Moreover, you’ll be in the same time zone, eliminating the need to worry about time differences when scheduling meetings. If you want to visit the shop, you can simply book a flight or drive there.
You can take advantage of government funds and support available for businesses that expand into different regions of the country.
Explore Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit — Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
Discover New Zealand’s regions — New Zealand Trade and Enterprise
Grow overseas
Expanding internationally poses greater challenges. Even if you decide to open a shop in nearby Australia, there will be plenty to navigate. While they also speak English and share a similar culture, they have distinct laws and regulations.
When determining prices and budgets, you must also consider currency fluctuations. Depending on how exchange rates fluctuate, your earnings may be lower or higher than anticipated.
However, with thorough research and a readiness to learn and adapt, you can usually overcome these challenges. Achieving success will be immensely rewarding and will elevate your business to new heights.
What you need to know about exporting
Get export support from the government
Growth requires thought
No matter where you choose to expand, careful planning is essential. You must consider why you want to expand and which market is the right fit for your product. Even if you decide to grow within New Zealand, conducting thorough research is crucial.
You need to determine which location aligns best with your other marketing Ps (product, price, and promotion). It’s possible that you’ll need to make adjustments to your marketing mix as you may not be able to replicate your business exactly in the new location.
Financing your growth is another important aspect to consider. Market research, setting up a shop or office, hiring staff, and other related activities require both time and money. Depending on your business, it could take several years to recoup these expenses.
Can you locate advisors who grasp the local market and culture? Will you be capable of recruiting the required staff members? If a significant portion of your business relies on foot traffic, is there adequate foot traffic throughout the entire year?
Use stats & data
Case study
Wellington-based start-up
Tal Meser, co-founder and director of Flatfish, a platform for landlords, tenants, and property managers to facilitate happy renting. Their team of four operates from Creative HQ, a co-working space and start-up accelerator.
To gain insights into their target market, they extensively researched statistics from sources like the New Zealand Tenancy’s website, TradeMe, and Stats New Zealand. This helped them gauge market size and set appropriate pricing based on average property and rental prices. Flatfish is now preparing to raise capital and believes that utilising statistics and data will strengthen its investment pitch.
Tal advises fellow business owners to identify the data they require and reach out to relevant organisations for assistance. He emphasises the importance of leveraging statistics and data to mitigate risks and increase chances of success.
Competitor research
Recognising risk is a crucial aspect of marketing. Oftentimes, your major threats come from rival businesses.
To effectively compete, discover the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. You can devise a unique promotion or offer to gain a competitive edge. Alternatively, identify their strengths and strive to enhance those aspects to narrow the distance between you.
Conducting online research or engaging in mystery shopping are viable options to investigate your competitors. Mystery shopping entails enlisting someone else to shop with your competitors and gather information about them. They pay attention to details such as products, pricing, deals, and customer service.
How to research your market and competitors
SWOT your business
SWOT represents “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.” Conducting a SWOT analysis is an excellent method to evaluate the strengths of your business and areas that require improvement. It can also assist in identifying ways to exploit opportunities and prepare for potential threats that may impact your business’s success.
Businesses often utilise a SWOT analysis to shape their plans and strategies, including their marketing objectives.
To begin your analysis, simply draw a large square and divide it into four smaller squares. Fill each square with one component of the SWOT analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
For instance, a SWOT analysis could reveal the following:
- Strength: Your brand reputation in your core market.
- Weakness: Your dependence on one core product for revenue.
- Opportunity: The absence of significant competitors in an emerging market related to your industry.
- Threat: Competitor’s diverse range of products.
Based on these findings, you may decide to enter a new market to enhance your position across all four areas.
Tip
Take advantage of complaints to enhance both your customer service and your overall business performance.
Complaints can serve as a valuable data source. Utilise this data to identify issues and assess the effectiveness of your solutions.
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