4 Ways to Create Marketing Excellence

Marketing is a science devised to help drive customers to your door.  There are lots of ways to define how to market well, including the four P’s of marketing (1): product, price, promotion and place.  This is considered to be the producer-oriented model. These are still the driving focus behind most marketing courses, and deserve to be so.

More we are taught in marketing classes

Then there is the four C’s, the consumer-oriented marketing model (2).  The four Cs: Consumer, cost, communication and convenience.  This makes sense too, and surely deserves time.

Oh boy. Then there’s the compass or cardinal definitions model for marketers:   N=needs, W=wants, S=security, and E=education.  We can go on forever.

But I have my own model that is even simpler.

I’ll call it my IDCL model, just to fit into the scheme of the conversation.

I= increase revenues.  Find a way to position the company and the product to be wanted so much that it moves into the needs column for the consumer.  Use all the techniques you learn in marketing classes to drive demand.  Higher demand results in higher prices – if there is limited supply.  Or, with or without limits on supply, higher demand results in greater revenues, satisfying the “I” in the formula.

D=Decrease costs.  With greater demand comes the option to increase production and gain efficiencies of scale, driving costs down in the process.  Even without higher demand, reducing costs should always be a focus for management to provide breathing room for increased profits.

C=Customers, and more customers.  Marketing should provide a pool of ready to listen customers, no matter what the price or complexity of the product.  More importantly for management, finding a way to focus on extreme customer service will be the most inexpensive, effective marketing tool of all.  Existing customers have low acquisition costs, addressing the “D” in the equation.  Extremely happy existing customers are the greatest marketers you will ever have.

And finally, L=Low touch-no touch.   The world has turned upside down with COVID-induced worries about touching any kind of surfaces, and for good reason, even after we exit from the pandemic period.  How can you differentiate yourself from others with a no touch product, if you are a producer of a product that must be pushed, handled or driven to make it produce results?  Are you behind others or ahead in thinking of ways to market a unique experience that fits into this new era?

Increase revenues, decrease costs, better serve customers, and think low touch-no touch.  IDCL:  that could be a motto or even a manifesto for any good management team.  And it’s a good place to start a focus upon positioning.