THE 10 "Ps" OF MARKETING      

      Marketing for a Small Family Business largely depends upon the ability of the Family to:-

        (1) Provide:

        (2) the right Product

        (3) at the right Price

        (4) in the right Place

        (5) at the right Period

        (6) using the right Promotion

        (7) employing the right People

        (8) for the right Purpose

        (9) using the right Persuasion

        (10) in order to make the right Profit


     Provide Initial Provision:
    (1) When first entering the Small Family Business world as an owner operator it might be best to start with a product other than your own as a "Pro Vision" - i.e. for looking or seeing things. This will give you the opportunity of getting your feet wet without "damage" to your own new product or service.

   A bit like learning to drive in someone else's vehicle. This is so that your's wont get damaged by those other less careful drivers before you learn to evade them and understand the problems of the road ahead.

    If the first Business opportunity costs nothing to start or finish then most of your Capital can be used to do your own thing - but now, fueled with some of the necessary street smarts.


    The Right Product:
   (2) The right Product needs to be well market researched before entering the fray - not forgetting all the tax implications and benefits.


   The Right Price:
   (3) The right Price - not too expensive to have cheap imitations follow your pioneering - not too cheap so that all the profit is lost - including intellectual copyright.


   The Right Place:
  (4) The right Place is not always easy to choose. Although Entrepreneurs are Creative they also learn somehow, to be realistic. Some learn from books i.e. from other people's experience. Some learn by observation and some have to pee on the electric fence themselves.


    The Right Period:
    (5) The right Period is not a "put off" to next year. If your product is a new mouse trap is there a plague? (Just in passing the best mouse trap is a plastic see-through trap which catches them alive. The animal liberation people have indicate mice should not be drowned so one could be forgiven for liberating the mice on their doorstep. Thus creating a mini-plague for which the best mouse trap is readily available.
(NB If you can't have a little fun doing your thing , it may not be the best thing since sliced bread)


    The Right Promotion:
    (6) Possibly the best initial and low cost Promotion is simply Telemarketing. This gets a fairly comprehensive feed back (market survey) within the first $25 spent (100 phone calls)  You learn how to act and react with potential clients within the first twenty calls. After the first 10,000 successes, call for John Singleton - you don't have the time to do your own Promo work.

 

      The Right People:
    (7) Employing the right People is usually not an issue  with a virgin Entrepreneur. It's the Family Members or not at all. However, the Worse Case Scenario is to expect any Family Member to work for nothing. In fact it is almost fatal and bad Business Economics not to pay them the max that the ATO will allow i.e. market "arms length" value.

        This is why Tax Planning, rather than Accountancy, is so necessary to the understanding of Digital Money. see "How to Rob a Bank Legally"


    The Right Purpose:
    (8) Being a business owner infers being rich rather than being poor - master rather than servant - but it does not infer great wealth. Creating great wealth infers working long hours and much stress on Family Members.
    If being your own boss confers on a Family the Freedom of Choice to climb every mountain,
ford every stream, follow every highway, in search of that impossible dream - happiness -  your true purpose may not be uncountable wealth.

    That is not to say great wealth is not a commendable  target - providing you can handle it.

    Many can't - so most of us are just happy to be rich --- broke or wealthy makes little difference.


    The Right Persuasion:
    (9) Using the right Persuasion requires a touch of practical psychology.

     All people  belong to a social system of three elements. A system, any system, has
        (1) input element
        (2) control element,
  and (3) output element.

   Our Westminster System of Government has a
        Judicial Arm examining new Law
        Executive Arm controlling by Law
        and a Legislature - Entrepreneurial Politicians creating new Law

    So we must have Controllers (management/executive)
    Critics (examiners, lawyers, accountants, doctors, etc.)
    and Creative Entrepreneurial people - Business Owners and or Inventors.
     But no one of the three elements can take the place of another very well.

    That's why Managements can get along with each other on the totem poll or pecking order - they know their place.
    A Critic within Management is just a pain in the butt. Put him to work examining the books, researching the law, examining diseased organs and he/she is happy.
     Imagine a Creative Entrepreneur in Government - time for another Royal Commission.

   Each person owns his own job function, character or attitude and each needs to be Persuaded by different methods or view points for Management, Critics or Creative People.

     A good sales person (marketer) would first establish which characteristic (read attitude) is best in line for his Product. Or otherwise learn how to approach each individual characteristic in it's own distinctive way.

    Motivation is also an Issue in Persuasion.
    By rule of thumb, most Australians are motivated by either ego or greed - similar in range (1-14) perhaps, to the pH scale for acids and alkalis in Chemistry. Near neutral (7) being easier to deal with than the real greedy (1) or the very egotistical (14)
     The way to approach a slightly "greedy" person would be different to approaching a slightly "egotistical" one.  And no doubt a very "greedy" or "egotistical" one would be different again.


   The Right Profit:
   Some say this should be up to market forces. However, if a reasonable profit is not made a Business will soon go broke. But on the other hand, if profits are too high and the price is astronomical for the market, the Business will go broke also.

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