The 4Cs of marketing are company, collaborator, competition, and customer.
One of the very first things you should do - even before creating your product, but at least before launching it to the public - is evaluating these 4Cs. Doing so can mean the difference between you becoming the new market leader or the new flop.
By leveraging your strengths...
By acknowledging your weakness...
By creating (or modifying) your product so it's exactly what your customers want...
By creating (or modifying) your product so that it's something that doesn't exist anywhere in the marketplace...
By working with people and organizations to get the word out - fast, is what you'll be doing IF you start with the 4Cs.
If not, you are working against yourself and the market to create and sell a product that is likely to be average (at best) and only if you're lucky, successful.
You can depend on luck, or you can do your research. Here's how:
Start with a blank sheet of paper.Make four columns.List Company, Competition, Customers, and Collaborator as the column headings.For each column, list as many things as you can about it. Hold nothing back. Whatever comes to mind put it down.
At the completion of this exercise you'll have sketch of your company, competition, collaborators, and customers - ideas, characteristics, and various things about you and your marketplace to explore further.
Somewhere in that list could be your next big breakthrough.
A big idea that acts as a springboard to a new product.An untapped source of leads.A vulnerability that needs fixing.You will discover online marketing solutions, offline solutions, product ideas, and more.
Here's how to get started...
In the Company column - List your strengths, weaknesses, culture, size, abilities, ethics, etc. The idea is to list everything about your company - everything. Anything that could be leveraged in a marketing campaign, that could be leveraged during product creation, advertising, employee communications, support. List affiliations, patents, and awards. List financial strength, and age of company. List anything that you could potentially use to improve your current position in the market, to create a better perception in the minds of your prospects, to become more attractive to collaborators (mutually beneficial partnerships with people and businesses).
In the Competition column - List all your top competitors. Study them. Find out their strengths and weaknesses. What segment of the market do they dominate? How do they dominate? How do they price, package, and support their products? Why do their customers go to them and not you? Where do they advertise? How do they advertise? Where don't they advertise? How big is their company? What's their culture? What's their marketing message, their position? The idea is to figure out everything you can about your competition, and how you can be different. The idea is to take advantage of the areas they're weak. The idea is to find a way to reach your goals and you cannot do that if you don't understand your competition.
In the Customers column - List the characteristics of your ideal customer. Who are they? Where do they hang out? What do they like? What do they hate? How old are they? Where do they live? How much do they make? How many of them are there? Why do they want a product like yours? What about your product is appealing to them? What about your product is unappealing? Get in the minds of your customers... ask them these questions if you don't know the answers. Create a survey. Send them an email. Organize a focus group. But get the answers. And then go build a product and company the better serves them.
In the Collaborators column - List all the people and companies that have access to/influence with your market. Then find a way to create a mutually beneficial relationship with them. They promote and you promote them. You do something for them and they'll do something for you. This one is all about finding more sources of leads, ways to generate more trust, and authority. If you can partner with a person or company or celebrity, then everyone that likes that person, company or celebrity now knows about you, too.
Edward Bordi is a marketing consultant. He works with small businesses by uncovering problem areas and identifying untapped opportunities. Through careful analysis, he develops and then implements a custom and comprehensive marketing plan - that is focused on dramatically increasing profits. Edward studied marketing at the prestigious Wharton business school, and is certified as an Independent Marketing Advisor (IMA) by one the top online marketing companies in the world, DotComSecrets.
Visit Edward's company website, 1EASYPLAN, to learn more online marketing solutions.
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