Starting a Business

Five Marketing Concepts

by Henry McCabe

In my October 3, 2013 blog I suggested that you begin your new business planning by identifying a need that needs to be met and a way to meet it.  In this blog I expand upon the idea.

1. Needs. Potential customers have requirements fundamental to their existence. Food, clothing, shelter, transportation and security are among basic needs of consumers. Customers, image, premises, means of distribution and record keeping are among the basic needs of businesses. You can build a very nice business around satisfying one of these.

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2. Wants. Potential customers also have desires for things that improve the quality of their existence. Tasty food, attractive clothing, fancy transportation and security from a host of threats are among basic wants of people. Lots of customers, an image that grabs, a high traffic location, fast and cheap distribution and easy foolproof record keeping are among the basic wants of businesses. As you can see, wants are based on needs but go beyond what is needed for mere survival.  You can build a very nice business around satisfying one of these.

3. Benefits. Any product or service that meets a want or need does so because it has attributes that fulfill a want or need. The attributes provide the benefit that a consumer or businesses seeks. Basic foodstuff provides the benefit of life to an individual. Tasty and varied foodstuff does the same,  but has the added benefit of improving the quality of life. The same is true of products and services that businesses buy. Defining the benefits of your offering makes it much easier to present a successful pitch to prospects.

4. Features. The attributes mentioned above are the tangible or intangible characteristics of a product or service that produce benefits. Plain steamed brown rice provides the benefit of sustaining life because it contains proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Add flavor and variety by  cooking it in chicken broth, adding some vegetables or spices and you have a meal that not only sustains life but makes it pleasurable. Defining the features of your offering that create benefits makes it much easier to present  a successful pitch to prospects.

5. Marketing Message. By taking these theoretical concepts and applying them to your thinking about why  customers would want to buy your products, you can come up with a marketing message that addresses their wants and needs. The message should form a logical argument. You want or need 'something'. My widgets have 'the following benefits' that satisfy your need. That is so because my widgets have 'the following features' which create the benefits. The basic message should be simple, short and be written in language you would use in person with a prospect. Three sentences or phrases.  It can be expanded when required for more  impersonal communications. One technique that can help the process is to create a three column, five line table. The columns are Want/Need, Benefit and Feature. The lines are  individual wants or needs and their corresponding benefits and features.

Planning. The only thing we know for sure about any plan we make is that actual events will turn out to be different. That is why we must learn and adapt as events unfold.

Definition Quiz. What phrase describes a simple spoken marketing message?

Answer to last quiz: Channels of distribution.