Market and promote your business
This Market and Promote your Business Info Guide explains the five Ps - Product, Price, People, Place and Promotion. It includes suggested marketing and promotion activities that you can use to make your customers aware of your business and your product or service.
Marketing is the term used to describe all the activities designed to ensure that a business attracts and retains a growing base of satisfied customers. It doesn't happen automatically - it requires careful planning, management, budgeting and monitoring.
Marketing is not the same as selling or advertising. It is the groundwork for selling and advertising. It includes the following:
- Carrying out research to identify your target market and their requirements
- designing products or services for identified customer groups with needs that are not currently being met
- monitoring market trends, and reviewing and improving your product/service in order to continuously anticipate and respond to changing customer needs and tastes
- keeping ahead of the competition by finding out if you can do something better than they do it or if you can do something that they don’t do
- setting specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound objectives. For example, you might aim to gain at least 30 new customers over the next 3 months. Your goals might include sales, profit and customer satisfaction goals.
- pricing your product or service
- positioning your product or service in the market
- promoting your product, service or brand to make target customers aware of it
- packaging your product or service and providing it in an appropriate setting
- developing and implementing a Marketing Plan
How you market your product/service depends on your marketing budget.
Remember!
Marketing always aims to satisfy customer requirements while also making a profit.
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Marketing means getting the right PRODUCT, at the right PRICE, delivered by the right PEOPLE, at the right PLACE, and at the right TIME, using the right form of PROMOTION. You can make your marketing strategy a reality by using a combination of marketing tactics known as the marketing ‘mix’ or the 5 Ps:
Remember!
You can alter your marketing mix to suit your marketing objectives. For example, you may wish to increase the focus on promotion while taking the focus away from price.
To have a successful business, you need to identify a niche where the product or service which you offer meets customers’ previously unsatisfied needs in terms of features, advantages and benefits so that they will buy from you again and recommend your product or service to others.
As part of your market research, you should consider target customer attitudes and expectations regarding price. What price are they willing to pay? What are they accustomed to paying already for similar products or services?
You should also consider the following:
- Will target customers be willing to pay a premium for added value?
- What mark-ups are needed to cater for overheads, other costs and profit margins?
- What range of credit cards will be accepted?
Discounting
Discounting should also be considered as part of your pricing strategy. At certain times of the year a discounted price may be offered if a product is booked online. Different segments of the market may be charged different prices, eg a hotel may charge a lower rate for business guests who have repeat business.
Direct and indirect costs
The tourism industry has a very high fixed cost base and is labour intensive. Focus on price is essential to ensure consumers will repeat purchase at an accepted profit margin.
Aim for a comfortable margin (excess of sales over costs) to cover not only direct costs in providing your product (eg food and consumables in a restaurant) but also overheads/indirect costs (eg marketing, rent and administration costs), leaving a sufficient profit to pay yourself and/or re-invest in the business.
In marketing terms, place means the location of all the points of sale from where potential clients can access information about your product (eg travel agents, tour operators, tourist offices, your business website).
Remember!
Your business website should be attractive, easy-to-navigate, up-to-date and optimised for search engines.
Location
Place also means the location where your business will be conducted. For more information on factors to be considered in choosing a location for your tourism business, see Choose a location.
You can use all or some of the following marketing and promotion activities to make your customers aware of your business and your product or service:
- Advertise special offers and package deals in local, regional, national and international publications, and via the internet
- Send out monthly newsletters
- Run sales promotions, including vouchers and competitions
- Advertise in trade publications
- Participate in trade shows and events (eg supported by Fáilte Ireland and Trade Organisations)
- Engage in public relations (PR) activities (eg sponsorship of events, sending press releases to print and broadcasting media, giving interviews to the media, favourable word-of- mouth)
- Post press releases about newsworthy products and recent business successes on your website/blog and sent to the local press and other relevant media outlets
- Engage in face-to-face networking and online networking, via eg LinkedIn
- Start a blog or contribute to tourism industry blogs
Direct marketing
Direct marketing activities normally use a client database to identify and contact target customers and to record customer details. Examples include sending emails and brochures to individual target customers.
Promoting your business through direct marketing may have implications under the Data Protection Acts (1988 and 2003). Please contact your legal adviser for more information.
Web marketing
Make your business website work for you as a powerful marketing tool. Online promotions, special offers, and video and photo galleries can be used to ‘sell’ and promote your business. Ensure that your website is well designed, optimised for search engines and regularly updated.
To increase traffic to your website, consider adding your website link to www.discoverireland.ie and trade association websites.
‘People’ include all those who work in and for your business – you and your team who deal with your clients on a one-to-one and day-to-day basis. For more information, see Build your team.
Remember!
- Effective personal selling requires good interpersonal skills and excellent communication skills, together with good product or service knowledge.
- Each staff member is potentially a sales person for the business. Friendly staff with a ‘can do’ attitude, who can deal effectively with customers in a professional manner, will enhance your business image and boost your sales capabilities.
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