It’s easy to forget some of the critical roots of marketing when you spend so long developing and delivering strategies every day. Recently I’ve been thrown back into the world of the fundamentals of marketing whilst researching and guiding our aspiring marketer Alex. Being exposed to some of the basic marketing principles for her CIM education it struck me that whilst we deliver sound marketing guidance to our clients there are a lot of businesses out there who have neglected one of the most critical Ps in marketing. Their product.
Those with a marketing or business background will be aware of the 4 Ps which have evolved into a network of Ps interconnecting the various principles and disciplines of marketing management.
The core Ps still focus on Product, Price, Place and Promotion, yet whilst the prominence of the first P suggests the value of this part of the model, it appears to be trailing behind promotion. Product has got to be back on the top of the agenda for the hospitality industry.
Marketers are expected to pull a hospitality business out of danger and with discounting still rife the pressure is on to be even smarter and more creative. But what if the product or service you are promoting is flawed? It’s part of a marketer’s role to take responsibility for the positioning of a product and/or service, all too often I have witnessed meetings where the marketer has no input into the delivery of a business, just the delivery of the messages. This is wrong. A marketer has the power and the resource to help shape a business to drive a sound plan for growth and stability.
Customer generated content now provides a marketing tool for hotels, restaurants and venues – so getting the product right is vital if they are going to be your brand ambassadors. What they say online about their experience will affect your business, so getting the product right in the first place is critical. Your company marketer or agency therefore needs to be fully involved in the development of your product, from the customer journey to the overall positioning of the brand. How can a marketer build and protect a brand that has poor customer service, or uses poor quality products in their catering?
By Petra Clayton, managing director, Custard Communications.
