Branding Vs Marketing
The way I approach strategic branding is not a traditional marketing approach. The traditional marketing approach will tell you that branding is a small subset of marketing but the reality is that branding sits on top of everything and the reason I can definitively say this is that all examples of marketing are always branding but not all examples of branding are marketing. Of course, many traditional marketers would possibly disagree with me and that’s okay but for me, the way that we engage our audiences today, the way we bring a person and a business closer together has dramatically changed in the last 10 to 15 years and it’s going to continue to change in the years to come. For me, branding and brand sit on top of everything, and most of the important considerations of bringing a person and a brand closer together sit in the realm of brand strategy which sits on top of marketing.
Despite all of that, it’s still important to understand and consider traditional marketing concepts. I’m not saying that the four Ps of marketing are irrelevant. They are not irrelevant. They are very relevant and I consider all of the four Ps within my brand development process just maybe not in the same way that other traditional marketers might approach it but either way you need to understand the four Ps of marketing. You need to understand those traditional marketing concepts so you can have those high-level conversations with those leadership teams and with those marketing managers so with that let’s jump into the four Ps.
Product
Your product consideration can go deep in terms of the product line itself, how it’s presented, how it’s packaged etc. But on a basic level, your product needs to meet the needs and the wants of your audience. You’re going to define who exactly you’re targeting within your brand strategy and what you want to mean to them, what difference you want to mean in their lives, and the position that you want to take in their mind and once you have all of that then you can focus in on the product and giving them what they need or what they want. Make sure that the product that you develop is aligned with that difference that you want to own in their mind. Make sure that your product considers the needs and wants of who your target market is and give them what they want.
Price
Your price point should be most definitely aligned to the position that you want to own in the mind of your audience and should also take into consideration the value that your brand is offering and the cost associated with delivering that value as well. Of course, if you want your brand to be associated with luxury, your price is going to be relatively high. On the other hand, if you want to be associated with a budget then your price is going to be relatively low but you need to define the position that you want to own in the mind of your audience before deciding on a price and then use the pricing consideration to settle on your price point. It can go a little deeper here in terms of tactics and techniques on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis just ongoing in terms of your pricing strategy but all of this is considered within the price.
Promotion
This P of the marketing mix is all about knowing where your audience is when they’re there and meeting them there with your branding message. Let’s stick with traditional marketing for a second. Let’s say you had a high street brand (Chanel for example) they wanted to advertise and they were choosing where to promote their brand and when to promote their brand. They might choose ad space during sex and the city or let’s say you had a men’s supplement and this brand wants to choose where to promote their brand they might look at men’s health magazine and buy some ad space there but today digital marketing has changed the way this is done. If you think about Facebook ads and the hyper-targeting that you can get there it still considers the same things. It can still consider the same interest it just goes a little bit more granular there so number three promotions consider where your audience is at and how to meet them there.
Place
The importance of this consideration has dwindled somewhat in the last 15 to 20 years because if you think about what business was like 20 or 30 years ago, pretty much every business and brand had place consideration. They needed to consider where they were going to be if they were going to be on a high street or if they were going to be in a small suburb. They needed to decide where their audience was and where they’re going to be but today pretty much everybody is online and most businesses have some form of the presentation online and many businesses today are just online but you still need to consider what area you’re going to service and where you’re going to be for your audience. It’s still an important consideration less important than it was 20 years ago but you still need to understand your place.
This is the marketing mix and the four Ps of the marketing mix and as I said although I don’t approach my brand building efforts using the four Ps or using the marketing mix in its original concept. I do address every one of those Ps within my brand building, my brand development, and positioning considerations. It’s important to understand that these concepts haven’t been dropped. They’re not less important, they are very important and as you’re speaking to brand leadership teams with marketing managers if they want to have that level of conversation with you, if they want to address the four Ps then you should have an understanding of where they fit into your brand building process.
