A marketing strategy is built upon certain fundamental principles but the key one is this – find a way to win more business than your competitors. As such, much effort goes in to 1) making sure that your brand enjoys greater exposure than your competitors, 2) enhancing your service offering above and beyond the competition and 3) adding value to your service offering wherever possible. Keep reading below to understanding the value of promotional products in your marketing mix.
For each of the elements above, promotional products actually play a role. For the sake of simplicity, let’s stick to the good old 4P’s of the marketing mix – product, promotion, price and place. And yes, I just heard several of you marketing graduates break out in a cold sweat! Remember the 7P’s of services marketing!? We won’t go there today. Let alone the two 4C’s or the new 4P’s which was introduced in 2012!
When marketing their products firms need to create a successful mix of:
- the right product
- sold at the right price
- in the right place
- using the most suitable promotion
Product
The Product element of the marketing mix refers to the physical product, or service, that a company is offering. At the most basic level, this requires attention to quality, style and suitability to market, but as a marketer it is also crucial to be looking at ways to add value to a product or service and the offering in general, and this is where promotional products can play a role.
If we take a “gym membership” as the product in question, this is a great example of how a promotional item can add value to the original offering. In this case, the original offering will include access to the fitness facilities, perhaps with multiple levels of access in accordance with the membership type, and perhaps access to additional services such as child minding. But, almost every fitness centre will also supply a range of additional products as a way to a) add value to the original product but also to b) increase exposure of their brand to non members. Common products that are utilised in this way are drawstring bags, custom water bottles and sweatbands. The result of incorporating additional products in to the original offering is that, for a fairly low cost, the fitness centre has increased the perceived value of the membership, with a new member perhaps thinking that their $50 membership fee is already covered by the receipt of these extra promotional items.
Price
Determining price within the marketing mix comes down to positioning. How are you positioning your product or service in relation to the competition? Are you focusing on a specific angle of differentiation related to HOW you do business (faster service), how your brand resonates (we’re young and edgy!), or WHAT you provide (our product is 12.5% better!)? Your price needs to be relevant to your positioning proposition.
Promotional products related only to the Price element of the marketing mix in that they also relate to your positioning. For products and services positioning themselves at the lower end of the pricing scale, their will probably be very little need for promotional items. Take budget airlines for example – you get your seat and that’s about it. Compared to a ,major airline, which prices it’s services different, a customer may expect added value branded merchandise like the in-flight kids packs etc. As such, the decision related to price does effect the purchase and use of promotional products.
Place
Over the years, the Place elements of the marketing mix has really related to distribution methods and the HOW you are going to sell something, along with the WHERE are you going to sell it. This has expanded in recent years to incorporate online elements of marketing. With regards promotional items, the key here is geographical relevance and freight considerations. Using a summer-focused promotional product such as a cooler bag will be irrelevant in cooler climes, as would branded beanies to tropical destinations.
The other element of place is that of distribution – does your distribution network allow for the use of a larger branded promotional item like a deck chair, or would custom pens be a more logical product to promote? If many of your customers buy from a retail outlet, a bricks and mortar operation, then there is greater scope to use larger promotional products. If your target market buys predominantly from you online, then you probably don’t want to be added thousands of dollars to your freights costs by packing large promotional products!
Promotion
Now this is where promotional products become really important. Incorporating promotion products in your marketing mix is about gaining exposure and awareness of your product within the relevant target market, which is one of the main purposes of promotional products of course. As with promotion in general, the key is determining both a target market and a suitable message; the understanding of these two elements will dictate the medium or channel used to communicate the message to the target market.
Choosing the right method of communication is key to not only reaching your target market, but to reaching them effectively and efficiently. Spending $50,000 on a TV commercial during prime time will certainly reach your target market, but is it efficient compared to other potential channels available. Spending $500 on distributing flyers is cheap, but will it be effective in reaching enough of your target market and communicate the message you wish to convey?
The same is true of promotional items; it is always easy to spend money but spending it wisely is key. The entire point of most promotional product purchases is to enhance exposure of the business and brand. In other articles we have written about the importance of tailoring your promotional product spend to your target market. Far too many companies ignore good marketing sense in their purchase of promotional products and simply purchase following their own interests and desires. Just because you love North Melbourne footy club, it doesn’t mean our customers would want North Melbourne branded pens as an added value promotional product with their order.
To conclude
Promotional items are relevant to the marketing mix, and it takes a skilled marketer to recognise the importance of making the above decisions. Whilst we have dozens of new marketing and selling models available to us, the marketing mix remains relevant for many businesses. Sometimes, going back to basics is key to success is a volatile climate or competitive market.
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