With my two boys settled into school, I thought I’d take this column “back to school” with a fresh take on a marketing basic: the 4 Ps.

Product, price, promotion and place are the four factors that communicate a company’s marketing vision to its customers, according to my old marketing textbook.  While I don’t think that anyone would argue that these will always be important to marketing, a recent American Marketing Association online conversation highlighted that business owners need to do more today to create sustainable differentiation for their products and services.

Today, customers are more knowledgeable and demanding, and have more choices than ever. You have to get inside your customers’ heads to discover what matters to them if you expect to differentiate your product or service.  Start becoming customer-centric by getting to know the 4 Cs:

Customer Value.  Customers want to get the most value for what they’re spending. Not sure what additional value you can provide?  Ask some of your current customers what’s important to them. They might value your expertise, or your free gift wrapping or delivery services, or how quickly you respond to inquiries and service calls.

Convenience.  When you make it easy to do business with your company, or you make customers’ lives easier, they will want to buy from you.  Here’s an example: there are at least a dozen pharmacies in and around my hometown.  But the local CVS offers the most convenient prescription services. Not only do they have delivery service, drive-through pick-up and a telephone refill service – did I mention they’re open 24 hours? – they’ll also have a real live person call you if you’ve ordered a prescription and haven’t been in to pick it up after a few days.  All these options are wonderfully convenient when you’re juggling work, family and activities.

Cost.  Do you think your customers care how much it costs you to produce or purchase your product and how you mark it up to reach your price? Well, they don’t. What they care about is how much it costs them to buy and use your product over its lifetime. When they are making a decision to buy from you, they weigh this cost against the value they believe they’re receiving.  Do your best to make this decision easier for them.

Communication. Getting your message out continues to be crucial to the success of your business.  But realize your customers do not want a hard sell, or lots of slick images that get in the way of your message. What they want is credible information about your product or service. It helps if you can tell a story about how you solved a similar problem for a customer just like them.

The Marketing Advantage appears monthly in Union County Voice Magazine.  Ms. Kasprzak, principal of Advantage Marketing & Associates, is a certified management consultant who specializes in helping B2B clients connect with their customers to achieve greater sales revenues. She can be reached at LKasprzak@advantage-marketing.com or 908.233.6265.

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