Many people equate the term advertising with marketing. However, marketing encompasses a far broader scope of both product and selling strategies. In fact, as you will see, advertising is just a subset on one of the four major marketing strategies or what is often referred to as the four Ps of marketing.

Product strategy — The first step in developing a marketing plan is to identify who your target market is and what their unmet needs are.

You need to define your target market by demographics such as age, income, education and geographic location.

You may have a primary target market and perhaps a secondary smaller target market.

Once you have identified these markets, you must identify the product mix or service mix you plan to offer to these customers. 

Place or distribution strategy — After you have identified who your target market is, you have to decide how you will get your product or service to the customer.

The place or distribution strategy refers to the channels of distribution you plan to use. You can choose to be a wholesaler, retailer or direct marketer.

Pricing strategy — Selecting the right pricing for your product can be one of the most important factors in the success of your product or service.

There are several approaches you can take in pricing your product or service.

For example, you can base the cost on being the low cost leader or you can go for high-end pricing by emphasizing quality and value.

You can take a bottom-up approach where you calculate the cost to produce or deliver the product or service and then add on a profit margin.

Or, you can take a top-down strategy where you need to determine what people are willing to pay for your product or service.

If you are in a highly competitive market where there are a lot of other people selling the same item, you may have to base your price on what the competition is charging.

You can also run into trouble if you under price your product or service. In some cases, people have the tendency to associate low cost with low value.

Promotion strategy — The last “P” is your promotion strategy which includes advertising, publicity and personal selling efforts.

Advertising covers paid promotions such as placing ads in newspaper, radio, TV, magazines or direct mail. Publicity however is free promotion that you receive.

This includes sending press releases to the media or when the local paper decides to write an article on your business.

In addition to being free, publicity has the added benefit of increased credibility since the information is coming from a third party.

The last area generally covered under promotion is personal selling efforts. This might include networking at chambers and local business groups.

As you can see, marketing is much more than advertising.

You must have a well thought out strategy in each of the four Ps of marketing.

Be strategic and use the services at the Napa SBDC for marketing help. The SBDC offers low-cost marketing, PR classes and free counseling. Info, 253-3210.