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The Seven P Formula for Marketing Success

The purpose of the seven P formula is to put in place the tools needed to consistently evaluate your marketing strategy. Following is an evaluation of each of the seven P’s from the perspective of a Web 2.0 startup co-founder.

I assume you have your marketing strategy figured out and now its time to execute.

1. Product

• Constantly evaluate whether your product or service is still a match with your market.
• If you have direct competitors, examine whether you are differentiating.
• If you have problems with the above, can you re-position your product? Enhance it in some new way?
• You may need to offer something entirely different. That’s a tough pill to swallow, but may be necessary.

2. Price

• Numbers don’t lie. Are people buying your product or service?
• Check your market. What is the price they can bear? How much time/money do you save them?
• Investigate different payment terms/financing.

3. Promotion

• Constantly think of new ways to tell your market about your product (advertising, publicity and sales methods).
• Employ methods to measure the success of your different tactics.

4. Place

• Examine all methods of contact with your customer. (Website, E-mails, Phone, Trade Shows, Traditional Materials, etc…)
• Look at news ways of customer contact.

5. Packaging

• Take a look at how your product or service appears to your market.
• Examine how all elements of your business appear to the public, such as how your people dress, your office, etc…

6. Positioning

• Determine your ideal impression, and continue to think about how you can enhance that image.
• How does your market perceive you? How does that disconnect with your goals? How can you bridge that gap?
• How would a random sample of your market describe your business? Does that match with the message you want to convey?

7. People

• Evaluate all stakeholders regularly.
• Obtain more people that enhance your marketing strategy and equally as important, remove those who don’t.
• Install clear goals, time lines and responsibilities along with metrics to evaluate regularly.