The Marketing Wheel of Fortune^tm

by Karen Porter

It is quite common for small business owners to associate marketing with advertising. While the two do go hand in hand, marketing is much broader in scope. Gaining a more comprehensive understanding and applying the many aspects of marketing to your business can help it grow and thrive.

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I like to think of marketing in a visual sense.  To get started, visualize an old-fashioned wagon wheel. There’s a hub in the center, an outer rim that rolls along the ground, and spokes that hold the hub and rim together.  We’ll use this analogy to illustrate the multiple aspects of marketing.

The Hub drives all marketing – it represents the People (Target Market) you need to reach. With a physical wheel, everything revolves around the hub. With marketing, it revolves around the Market.

The Spokes each represent a separate, critical component Marketing.

There are six spokes, all of which must be kept in alignment in order for the wheel to roll smoothly and effectively. If one spoke is incongruent with the others, it will cause the wheel to have bumps or go “flat” in spots. A wheel that doesn’t roll smoothly will severely hamper marketing effectiveness and reduce a businesses’ profitability.

The Rim represents Profitability. If there is alignment of all the spokes with the hub, and if all spokes are strategically aligned with each other, you’ll see profitability soar.

The Six Spokes

• P roduct (or Service) – What you deliver.  It MUST meet the needs of your MARKET.  (It’s not about what YOU want to deliver or think the market should have, but rather, what the MARKET itself wants and/or needs.

• P rice – What you charge for products / services. Are you positioned in alignment with the products and services you are delivering and congruent with what your market expects to pay?

• P lace - Where you sell what you do. For bricks and mortar stores/services, this is location. For other providers, it can mean distribution channels or method of delivery (internet, infomercial sales on television, etc.) Does your location and/or your distribution channels match your product positioning and pricing strategy?

• P romotion – Where / how you are advertising and promoting your business and/or your individual products / services.  Promotion includes advertising, publicity, special events, promotions, and related activities. Are your marketing vehicles consistent with your product/service?  Does the image and readership / viewership of the vehicle align well with market you are trying to reach and the position your business / products hold in the marketplace? Further, does the promotional message itself match what is important to the market?

• P erformance – How well you are delivering what you sell. Are you delivering everything you say you will? Are your customers satisfied with your products / services and how you address any problems that might arise? Better yet, are they raving about it?

• P ositioning – Your business needs a unique position in the market.  Even if everything else is perfectly aligned, if you’re nothing more than a “me too,” you’ll struggle to achieve your profit goals.  Find a way to differentiate your business. A niche, a point of uniqueness. Some call it the Unique Selling Proposition.  Whatever you call it, make it your own.

Although most people think of marketing as being interchangeable with advertising or promotion, nothing could be further from the truth. Marketing is far more than just promotion. There are SIX spokes in the marketing wheel, with promotion being just one. And it’s imperative to understand that the customer (target market) drives it all.

You can’t effectively promote a product or service that doesn’t meets the needs or wants of the target market. You also have to be sure that all six spokes complement and support one another. If even one is out of alignment, the wheel gets a bump or goes flat which dramatically affects a smooth roll and reduces marketing effectiveness. In turn, that then reduces revenue and profitability.

A well aligned marketing wheel rolls smoothly. . . and nets improved results and greater profits!

© Karen Porter. This article may be freely published provided all content is left intact. trademarks are included where indicated, and the author bio/resource information below is included in its entirety.

Karen Porter is a marketing consultant with over 20 years marketing experience working with businesses large and small. With a special interest in assisting small business owners, her KPorterMarketing.com website contains articles, tips and recommended resources specifically of interest to budget conscious, small business marketers.  Subscribe to her marketing newsletter to get marketing tips and cost effective marketing ideas.