5Ps Strategic Marketing for Online Selling – Product

by Roberto Sena / Life Behavior España

5Ps Strategic Marketing for Online Selling – Product

Why Strategic Marketing

Now, online marketing is evolving into a BIG thing for sure and there are still many people out there who are at a loss of what to do in engaging the online community. So, what many of us tend to do is to just jump onto the bandwagon and go with the flow, with most of us not knowing exactly what we are doing and why we are doing what we do! (This means starting a website or a blogshop, and then erm… starting a facebook page? And later… getting a twitter account? And probably throw some cash into google adwords or facebook advertising… oh, not forgetting advertisements on magazines or trying to get onto a newspaper page… and yes, many more. And by the end of it all, be still frustrated that visitors count is good and fans are there but money from sales is not.) Yet, STRATEGY becomes the ever-important word in today's marketing plans â€" yes, all the way from top brands down to new brands including you if you are an online seller. Why? This is the reason â€" while many people are starting blogshops to sell ANYTHING under the sky just because it is a low cost startup, many products and brands are losing their differentiation edge. In a summarised business dictionary, there are only 2 terms that bring in business â€" Differentiate and Low Price. You must choose either path. Well, of course if you choose to have both, you win the final trophy. But either one will bring you business. Do you want to beat price down? I bet not. It's suicidal. Let me just repeat â€" An attempt to beat your competitors' price down in a product market is  a suicidal move. You end up perishing together. Your customers have the last laugh from a good bargain but might not return to buy from you again once they find another seller who charges even cheaper. So, in RUNAWAY's summarised business dictionary then, we must dictate that there is only one path â€" Differentiation. And differentiation demands STRATEGY.

The main reason why many online selling businesses fail

Marketing is a difficult thing, yes. Many of us who are online sellers have more passion in product sourcing, product creation or even product selling. But marketing seems to just be the last thing on our minds when it really really should be the most important thing because without marketing, nothing sells. And when nothing sells, we should stop sourcing or making anything. That is why many blogshops today end up shutting down in disappointment. Not that they have inferior products or bad business luck, it's only a matter of understanding marketing.

Getting to what matters â€" the 4Ps: Product, Promotion, Price, Place. Let's just stash in another P â€" Participation (Credits to Prof Jikyeong Kang) For this blog entry, let's talk about Product first.

Product

In strategic marketing, product means your product pictures, descriptions and erm, yes, the product itself. First RUNAWAY Commandmant: Thou shalt not lie to your customers! Why? Because you don't want to earn only profits from selling one product and have one person hate you enough to announce to all her friends on facebook or any other forums that you cheated her of her money and to stop buying from you (Esp if this person is highly expressive and has a whole dictionary of vocabulary in her head to use on you). Inconsistency, lying, cheating and all bad behaviors tarnish your reputation straight away and don't imagine you can get off scot free. You may be able to do that 10 years ago, but the environment is clearly different today. We are looking at smart shoppers who know what they want, and even the less smart ones have been cheated enough to know what to do with you if you end up cheating them. So, product picture integrity must be there. Now comes that very thin 1mm line between product picture integrity and a nice picture for good marketing. As an online seller, you need to discern and make the final call on what to reveal and what else is better left for further imagination. Sometimes, a lack of information can deter buyers from buying but many times, too much information can also affect  buyers' decisions in a negative way. Yet, these excess information must be information that, if not revealed to the buyer, will not result in any frustrations or anger upon purchase. We do understand, however, that we face different kinds of buyers everyday. So, if a lack of information results in any unexpected complaints later on, the rule of thumb is â€" BE NICE. In an industry where there are many easily offended, frustrated and impatient online sellers, don't be surprised but one way to differentiate is to be the nicest person around. =) People will not only come back to you, they love you enough to tell their friends about you. That's business, isn't ! it?

What makes a nice product picture? For product clarity, you might want to invest in a good camera, so that when you zoom into the picture, you can actually see the material type â€" this makes the picture real to the online shopper, the shopper can imagine herself touching the product and knowing how it feels like! On background, there are many schools of thoughts. Some people totally detest the use of white background, but for RUNAWAY, we believe that a white background is still the safest option, and definitely most flexible, especially if you are planning to post on multiple sites for publicity (which you SHOULD). It is also useful to know some photo editting techniques so that adjustments may be made if you do not have good lighting. Of course, using a light tent or mini photo studio is still the best option for easy editting later on.

A good product picture arouses enough interest to have shoppers click on that product. A well written product description can get the shopper clicking on "Add to Shopping Cart" faster than a product without much descriptions. Many people are capable of wording clear functional aspects of the products, eg. size, color, how to wash, how to wear, how to use, etc. But the differentiating factor will be emotional descriptions that your shoppers can relate to. Most, if not all, people today make emotional buying decisions. Why do certain brands sell better than others even though they are priced much higher? Why do big brands go after celebrity endorsements? Why do people wear Nike? If we remove the tick on a Nike apparel and try to sell it to you without telling you it's a Nike apparel, would you still pay the same price to buy it? We all adore brands, but definitely not any brand. Having a brand is not the important part. It's creating a personality for that brand, such that it relates to the buyer. Another way to put it â€" humanise your product. Personify it. Turn it into your shopper's friend, at best. And price becomes the lesser factor. When someone buys something because she can relate emotionally to it, this thing increases in its significance to the buyer. It becomes all the more worthwhile to spend a little more on this item. Some examples of emotional brand wordings by big brands out there:

Elegance is an attitude
You deserve to shine
There is always room for another pair of shoes like there is always room for desserts
The name that changed diamonds forever
Celebrating our love days
You, yourself, yours
Massage fit for a king
Romance at its finest

All you need is some shopping time out there at those shopping malls and you see who are the big brothers who continue to engage customers emotionally and who are just being salesy with minimal emotional engagements. Who do you want to be like? You decide.

5Ps Strategic Marketing for Online Selling – Product