This is attention grabbing stuff however I see it as a golden opportunity for things to return to normal. The boom times were good to bottom lines but they also bred some complacent marketers, easily seduced by the latest buzz-words like customer centricity, best-of-breed, integrated solutions etc. All an agency needed to do was present some mediocre work, give it a catchy name and clients coughed Rands.
All of a sudden marketers have got to make every cent work, and work hard! How are we to cope? It's back to basics; marketing 101. Yes that's right, dust off Kotler and toss out most of the fluff that's been written in the past while. The fundamentals haven't changed.
Start with the customer, seeing as they are the ones actually paying the salary of said complacent marketer. Do some research, understand who they are, why they buy the things they buy, and get some insight into what their real rational and emotional needs are.
Armed with this intelligence, take a look at your product/service. Is it hitting the hot-buttons of your target market? Are you delivering on the things they value in your offering? Some of these factors will be ‘hygiene factors'. These are factors which are expected in the product/service for it to even be included in the decision set. The tricky part; find out what makes your product/service different to competitors and make sure that what makes it different, really matters to the customer.
If you have a real cracker of a benefit that no one has and people really need, then you can probably justify a price premium, otherwise look to price a little more modestly.
Next up decide where you want to sell your products. Once again, common sense prevails. Selling high-end audio visual systems through Shoprite is a no-no. Go back to your research and find out where your market shops and sell your product there.
Finally you need tell people all about your amazing product/service. Hire an agency, give them a tight brief and budget (this will irritate them but cause them to think innovatively). Then measure the creative using AIDA - does it
Attract, hold
Interest, arouse
Desire and finally present a call to
Action.
And there you have it, a recipe for success. Sound achingly familiar? Understand your markets needs then design your product, price it reasonably, decide what place you want to sell it in and finally promote it with appropriate messaging. Did I hear four P's somewhere?
Otherwise I could also have told you to conduct an in-depth market analysis and metric program, followed by the development of a credibility/differentiation matrix to unlock the underlying consumer value equation resulting in a brand blueprint, overlaid with a price point portfolio management technique and rounded off with the ever effective experiential 360° touch-point specific communication campaign.
