Product...

Last week, I described how the "4 P's" of the marketing mix (product, place, price and promotion) work together like the ingredients of a good cheese and sausage pizza.

There's a huge difference between the quality and balance of the ingredients Domino’s uses vs. Chicago's Pizzeria Uno.

Today, I'll focus on the first of the P's: Product.

Research & Development may not be part of your Marketing Department, but in the strictest sense it should be. Marketing is really about meeting a customer's wants and needs. So, it all starts with the product.

(You may be thinking it's not relevant to you since you sell a service, but in marketing we often call both products and services "products". So read on.)

This may lead you to believe that marketing’s goal should be to develop the best possible product. It's not. The goal is to develop the best product to meet your customer's wants and needs at the price they're willing to pay. For instance, since we've already mentioned pizza, in my humble opinion, Domino's is not the best -tasting pizza on the market. (I think most people agree.) So how do they stay in business? Actually, their product isn't really pizza. It's fast delivery at a fair price. The pizza is secondary. Little Caesar's, on the other hand, is selling inexpensive ready-made pizzas for pick up. Compare those to my favorite local pizzeria, Sorrento's, which is selling a better quality product, with a longer wait, for a higher price: delivery, pick-up or dine-in.

As you see, you can be selling what appears to be the same product as your competitor, but actually each customer is buying something very different.

Another quick example. This week Beth and I bought a new office chair at Office Max for my home office. We chose Office Max because they were close to our home -- and we had a coupon. When we got there we found about 2 dozen chairs to choose from -- except the one we wanted to see. When we talked to the sales clerk, he told us that customers often would buy the floor sample at full price -- and he got stuck assembling a new demo chair. So, Office Max decided to charge a fee for this service. Now you can buy a Ready-To-Assemble chair or pay a little more to have it assembled for you. Now, they actually sell two different products - even though the actual product is identical!

One more point: If you're in sales rather than marketing, you are part of the product. Your product knowledge, availability and service are what separate you from the competition.

So, whether you're in marketing or sales, what are you doing to differentiate your product or yourself to meet your customer's needs? How can you "improve" your product (or service)?