Personal Marketing (Introduction)

What is Personal Marketing and why is it important?

Before we define Personal Marketing, we need to define a marketing term called the Marketing Mix.

In other words, the Marketing Mix is a mix of 4 factors (Product, Place, Price, and Promotion) used to influence consumers to purchase goods or services.  Marketing people refer to this mix as the 4 P’s of marketing.

Marketing Mix

Personal Marketing is a concept that takes the 4 P’s  and personalizes them.  You might say to yourself, “Marketing is for products, why on earth would anyone want to personalize it?”  When I first took marketing in college, no one ever said you would have to market yourself.  Their primary focus was on making sure the product met the needs of the customer.  They also covered all kinds of market influences that could effect the product demand.  Making changes to the Marketing Mix based on market conditions you could reposition the product to meet the changing needs of the customer and the market.

Marketers use the Marketing Mix as a tool to market a product for sale.  We’re going to use this same Marketing Mix as a tool to market an individual.

Why is this important?

You’re employed.  You’ve got job security.  Your career is established.  Everybody at work knows who you are and what you do.  Life is good.  You might want to consider this.  During this recession, many stable companies have gone under and others are struggling to keep afloat.  Many times, decisions to cut jobs are purely economical.  Are you ready to go back into the job market?  Do you know how you would promote yourself to potential employers?  If you answered NO to any of these questions then maybe you might want to read this series of blogs.

Over the next couple of days, I will be writing about the subject of Personal Marketing. Each blog will touch on one of the 4 P’s of the Marketing Mix and how personalizing it will help make you more marketable.

• Product – Who are YOU?
• Place – Where are you placing your services?
• Price – What are the factors that determine the price of your services?
• Promotion – How to communicate your services to your customers.