subject: The Keys To Successful Social Marketing Strategies [print this page] Social marketing's concentration is primarily on consumers' wants and needs rather than trying to convince them directly of the necessity to buy products and/or services. It is social marketing that is communicating with consumers, not the products. This category of marketing utilizes a mixture of marketing techniques to effect the sale of a product and/or service.
The four P's of social marketing are summarized below:
Product
Social marketing offers awareness of a product's existence and its intended function for an eventual consumer. What makes a product viable in this scenario? The aim is to convince consumers to think that a specific product answers a need that they have. Clearly, to achieve this, in-depth market research is important to social marketing given that it's designed to indicate consumers' likes and dislikes, product preferences, also consumers' views on products.
Price
This usually refers to the method or thing that the consumer needs to do to acquire a product or service. While this usually involves the exchange of money it could include intangibles such as effort and disapproval. When costs outweigh benefits, sales values tend to be reduced since consumers are reluctant to try new products. In contrast, if benefits outweigh costs, consumers are more willing to try something new and prices can be maintained at a higher level.
Place
This describes how the consumer receives a product or service. In the case of tangible goods, this is the "distribution system" which could include a sales force, transportation and retail outlets. For intangible goods, how the consumer place receives the product is unclear as it focuses on channels for training and information such as mass media, shopping malls, or in-house demos. Place also ensures access to quality and offering of service delivery.
Promotion
Most often, this social marketing element is mistaken for the whole marketing strategy. However, this is only one phase of marketing products. Promotion utilizes the combination of public relations, media advocacy, entertainment vehicles, and personal selling. That is to say, this is where advertisements become essential. Further, to gain critical knowledge of your target audience and their increasing demands in order to craft an effective social media campaign, it is highly recommended that companies conduct solid market research prior to product launch.
For maximum results, each one of these four P's needs not only careful consideration for the successful social marketing of products and services, but they should be carefully integrated to formulate a winning sales strategy.
The Keys To Successful Social Marketing Strategies
