Where’s my Starbucks!

Image by nic0

How you market your product and who you market it to is essential. If you hit the wrong crowd and deliver the wrong (or boring) message your product will probably fail or achieve only a limited amount of success.

Always keep in mind the essential Ps of marketing. It could be just one of those Ps that wins big for you, but a good combination is always your best bet.

Take for example Starbucks. They sell, uh . . . coffee; oh how exciting.

They did well because they didn’t advertise just coffee, they advertised a coffee bar where you could come and hangout, listen to music, or read the newspaper while you drink your coffee.

They didn’t advertise how great their coffee was; they advertised the coffee drinking experience.

Could you imagine if today you decided to try and start selling your own brand of coffee? The competition is stiff!

These days, a little cheaper and better product isn’t going to do it for you. Starbucks sure didn’t come up with a cheaper and better brand of coffee. Their promotion won. They promoted an experience and a new way of drinking coffee, not a product.

So now you’re saying, “Ok John, if you were going to market a new brand of coffee, what would your strategy be?”

My answer in marketing is to always solve problems for a select crowd - and not everyone.

If I were on a budget and just starting out, I’d laser focus my attention on a select group(s) of people or organizations that would spread the word about my product for me. These groups would have some sort of authority over others and would most likely spread the word about my product.

Are there other marketing methods? Of course and we’ll take a look at some of those another time. For now though, feel free to share you marketing strategy, ideas, and opinions in the comment section so that we may all learn from one another.

Have you signed up for John’s Blog yet? If not, click here.