0
0
By Abigirl Phiri
AN entrepreneur is a business minded individual who possesses the ability to timeously capitalise on an opportunity whilst making use of creativity and innovation. Nevertheless, given this scenario, entrepreneurs must have a good appreciation of other doctrines such as human resource, finance and marketing.
At some point you can no longer be a one-man band for there will come the time to expand your venture. Thus, you have to rope in likeminded individuals whom you will share the venture’s goal and vision so that all of you will uphold the entrepreneurial culture and be shrouded with a unanimous team spirit.
As a result, marketing is a fundamental tool that you all need to master and be one with as far as conducting it is involved. Basically, marketing upholds the doctrine that the customer is the king. For that reason, as an entrepreneur you need to satisfy your customers at the right time, place and with the exact product for their needs.
All in all, this leads us back to the four traditional P’s which are price, product, place and promotion. Personally, I believe all the P’s are very important but more attention should be directed at price for it is the one that any form of business should be mainly interested in since it dictates the kind of profit or returns that you will get in the long term.
Price
Without any shadow of doubt, price is a very fundamental component in business operations. As an entrepreneur you might not be well versed in marketing so you will need to source out expertise that will guide you accordingly. Indeed, there are many different pricing strategies one might choose to follow be it penetration that is selling at a low price or skimming that translates to targeting the crème de la crème of the society.
Either way, you have to choose which pricing strategy best befit your product or service. In the same vein, it should be competitive after all in the business world you do not live in a vacuum. Quite frankly, at all times you need to constantly be aware or be wary of your competitors for their next move since in the corporate world, dog eat dog.
In fact, nothing ever stays the same therefore you need to constantly stay on your feet upping your game and closing all your gaps this is with regards to your SWOT analysis. That said, have tactics to mitigate the impact of your weaknesses and threats if you wish to continue operating in this dynamic fast changing world.
Some claim the price denotes the value of the product or service but ultimately the value is subjective to what exactly the customer will be looking for in any given product. Interestingly, the pricing factor should be adequately set because if you underprice or overprice this will have dire consequences to your business operations.
Product/Service
The product an entrepreneur introduces in the market should serve its purpose to the end consumers to such an extent that it makes their lives smooth sailing. The beauty of entrepreneurship is that as an entrepreneur you get the opportunity to tailor-make these products to the desires of your niche market that is customisation or if you want to go the extra mile, personalisation.
Nothing in this world beats tailor making a product or service to the wishes of the customer. If you use this strategy you will never go wrong although your need to invest a lot of time and money in the project because it is true that no pain no gain. Again, product wise they need to be readily available.
Adding to that, visibility means a lot in creating brand awareness in the mind of your customers. Having said that, other pertinent issues related to a product are such as aesthetics and packaging. As an entrepreneur you should move with the times that is adhering to accredited quality certifying bodies such as the Standard Association of Zimbabwe.
In addition, there is the issue of sustainability and making noise in the market after all there is nothing that can stop you from incorporating green entrepreneurship onto your product.
Place
Due to the advent of technology issues of place have been dealt with soundly. This is because we are living in a global village as we are connected by the internet. For all intents and purposes, you can choose not to have a brick and mortar building as you will operate your business online that is implementing e-business or rather e-commerce.
This tend to save money, connect you with the people all over the globe, ensures you are ubiquitous and can readily attend to your customers at the click of a button. To this effect, entrepreneurs should take advantage of this technological God sent blessing.
Nonetheless, in the case you want to go the conservative way, you can place your store where it is convenient to catch the eyes of the customer. Also, there should be high traffic of the right customers that you are targeting.
All things being equal, you should be readily accessible that is your address and all because tangibles do have a big say in the marketing spheres. Furthermore, place is significant for it relates to the kind of distribution that you will eventually opt for as an entrepreneur whether it will be selective, intensive or numeric depending on the kind of products or service you have to offer your clientele base.
Promotion
This is the ‘P’ that tackles issues of how to remind customers of your business. Pressing the same argument, these promotions need to be done wisely so that they effectively work to the entrepreneur’s expectations and benefit. In a bid to increase sales volume, an entrepreneur can do sales promotions, discounts or rebates.
All these needs effective tactics and strategies through well planned promotions that won’t drain the business much money. All in all, it is sage advice as an entrepreneur to familiarise yourself with the traditional four P’s for they will guide you into doing the right thing in this 21st century.
This is the time to have a good understanding of every business aspect if ever you wish to retain a competitive advantage over other entrepreneurs always on the rise to mitigate the day to day problems of the masses.
Thus, the power of entrepreneurial marketing is undisputable because this tool is as old as time and since then up to now it has never failed to work.
