Have you defined your potential customer?

Over the past couple of months I have developed a workshop that teaches people about Personal Marketing.  The concept is pretty simple.  We focus on the 4 P’s of Marketing.

The 4 P’s of Marketing Mix:

1. Product – Define the product that will be sold
2. Place – Establish where the product will compete for customers
3. Price – Determine how much will be charged for the product
4. Promotion - Get the message in front of the eyes of the customer that will pay for the product. 

Usually when a company is developing a new Product, they do market research to determine the needs of the customer, then they specify the product to meet the customers’ needs.  This implies that they know who their customer is.  In the case of Personal Marketing, the product has already been produced.  The challenge is to take the product and find buying customers to promote the product to.

So, what is the Personal Marketing Department supposed to do with a product that has already been produced?

Personal Marketing Challenge:

• Product definition
  • Determine the sellable features (Skills, Experience)
  • SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
• Placement of the product
  • Where are these potential customers located?
  • In which industries do these potential customers exist?
  • Which companies might be these customers? – Who is looking for this product?
• Price of the product
  • What are the competing brands out there? – the competition
  • How much are potential customers willing to pay for a similar product? – the competition prices
  • The law of supply and demand usually has an affect on the pricing of a product
• Promotion of the product
  • Notify potential customers that the product they seek exists today
  • Present the benefits of utilizing the product to the customer

Final questions:

• Have you defined the product?
• Have you defined your customer?
• Have you determined the market price?
• How do you plan to promote the product?

If you aren’t clear on what the product is or who your customers are then your efforts at promoting the product will not be as effective as they could be.

Related posts:

1. Personal Marketing (Introduction)
2. Personal Marketing (Product)
3. Personal Brand
4. What does your email address say about you?
5. Store layout and traffic patterns affect sales