Marketing Small Business – 5 P’s – Product
Any business should clearly understand their products / services that they provide to their target market. To fully understand how well all your products fulfill the needs of the market it is important to clearly define what you have and most importantly understand if you have any potential holes in your product / service range and do these holes need to be addressed or are they out with your current target market?
When looking at bringing your product / service to the market place you need to look at the “product mix” that is its Width, Length and Depth lets take a casual shirt range:
Width: This dictates the varying styles of casual shirt in your range e.g. Round Neck, Collared or Long Sleeve.
Length: This dictates the different colours in the range
Depth: This dictates the different sizes in the range e.g. Men’s, Ladies and Kids
A good product line will meet the customers’ needs across its whole range; in the case a retailer selling a range of casual shirts they will need to have the right style, colour and size, if they do then they have the mix right.
The table above explains the term product mix by giving you examples of the width, length and depth of three very different products or services.
Take a look at your own products; can you say that about your own product range? Are there opportunities for your competition to exploit areas where your products don’t meet your clients’ needs, if so how can you over come this?
