4. Selling the product

Marketing Mix- 5 P's

Teams need to think carefully about how they will market their product or service. They may find it helpful to consider the marketing mix in order to meet their consumers' needs effectively.

At MyBnk, we ask teams to think about the 5P’s of their business.

People- who buys the product or service

Promotion- how customers are informed about products

Product – the features and appearance of goods and services

Price – how much customers pay for a product. The price level that a business decides to sell its product(s) at will affect both the quantity of sales and the profit-margin received per unit.

Place – the point where products are made available to customers

No one element of the marketing mix is more important than another – each element ideally supports the others. Businesses modify each element in the marketing mix to establish an overall brand image and unique selling point that makes their products stand out from the competition.

There is no single right marketing mix that works for all businesses at all times. The combination of product, price promotion and place chosen by a business will depend on its size, competition, the nature of the product and its objectives.

EXAMPLE- Rolex watches are premium products. They use the best materials and bespoke craftsmanship but this comes at a high price. Such designer brands can only be bought by wealthy people at exclusive stores and are promoted using personal sales assistants.

EXAMPLE- Seedbom team struggled to sell to people in their local area so they created their own website and sold all of their products.

EXAMPLE- Loom bands are mass produced products. They use cheap materials and are sold at a low price. Loom bands can be bought by the mass market and are best sold online and in newsagents. They can be promoted through online and social media.

In MyBnk programmes, the marketplace is sometimes chosen for the teams (Back My Business and Business Battle) so they may need to focus on the other P’s. However, EIB teams can often choose the place where they sell and there’s nothing to stop teams considering online selling.

Branding and Slogans

Once teams have considered their marketing mix, they can develop their branding and slogans.

The dictionary definition of a brand is a mark, a name, or a logo indicating who made a product. However, brand means more than that. Brand is better-defined as a reputation, the meaning, including all of the thoughts and feelings associated with that name or logo.

EXAMPLE- Very clear video on what branding is and why it’s important

Branding is a key way of differentiating products or services from rival offerings in the market place. It is crucial that teams stress the USP of their product/service and create a certain image for their product/service in the eyes of the consumers.

A strong brand can allow products/services to be sold at a high price, resulting in a high profit-margin for the team.

The brand can be depicted on packaging and marketing materials, however teams can also think creatively about how to project their brand.

EXAMPLE- Coca Cola, a very well-known brand uses the power of storytelling

Other businesses have built their brands around ethical missions and attract customers through emphasising the difference that they make to people and/or the planet.

EXAMPLE- Divine, a fair trade chocolate company co-owned by the cocoa farmers cooperative has distinguished themselves from other chocolate through their ethical branding

EXAMPLE- Café Direct, UK's largest fairtrade hot drinks company has the clear slogan of 'made the small way' to encapsulate their brand.

As part of their branding, teams may want to come up with a slogan that encapsulates their business and what they offer to customers. The slogan is likely to include their USP and how they are distinctive.

A catchy slogan can help boost sales in a crowded marketplace.

Examples of slogans

1. Loves the jobs you hate- Mr Muscle
2. So good the cows want it back- Cravendale milk
3. Finger Lickin’ Good- KFC
4. Never knowingly undersold- John Lewis
5. Exceedingly good cakes- Mr Kipling

Devising a Sales Pitch

A sales pitch is a short, persuasive speech convincing a customer to buy a product or service (or an investor to fund an idea).

It has to be catchy and convincing as people are unlikely to stop for long. It has to grab their attention and is sometimes referred to as an elevator pitch- if you only had the journey from first floor to the ground floor to convince someone to buy- what would you say?

We encourage all MyBnk teams to come up with a short sales pitch and encourage them to practice it before they get to the marketplace. Some young people may feel that they’ll just be able to improvise but it’s important that they know what they want to communicate about their product/service and how they’re going to get this message across. All MyBnk enterprise programmes are team based so it’s also important that everyone in the team is communicating the same style of sales pitch.

The sales pitch needs to be original and exciting. Teams could be inspired by some of the following examples.

EXAMPLE- Levi Roots’s sales pitch on Dragons' Den- notice how he still gets investment despite making a big mistake with his figures. The Dragons were won over by his pitch.

EXAMPLE- Magic Whiteboard pitch on Dragon’s Den (starts at 2 mins 24 secs). Pitch that clearly demonstrates the advantages of the product (and maybe something all MyBnk trainers would like to own)

Marketing Materials

Marketing can be thought of as the group in an organisation, or a general set of processes focused on understanding customers and satisfying their needs. They are often responsible for determining what products to make, where to sell them, how to advertise them, and what their prices should be.

Teams will have to work out how they’re going to make customers aware of their product/service. They will need to work out a strong advertising strategy to spread the message to potential customers.

Some ideas are:

Posters- these could be at the marketplace on the day or further afield to advertise the time and date to other people.

Flyers- these could be distributed on the day of the marketplace or beforehand. A flyer campaign could be targeted at specific people e.g. teachers in the staffroom or a ‘blanket’ campaign where a wider area is leafleted.

Sales promotions, which encourage customers to buy now rather than later. For example, point of sale displays, 2-for-1 offers, free gifts, samples, coupons or competitions.

Personal selling using face-to-face communication, eg employing a sales person or agent to make direct contact with customers.

Online marketing- through social media e.g. twitter, Instagram, Facebook and blogs.

The power of social media should not be underestimated. It is not only low-cost but can allow businesses to reach a wider range of customers.

Flash mob- staging a stunt, dance or event in a public place can create a buzz around a product or service.

EXAMPLE- Spark something: Sony Ericsson in Barcelona

EXAMPLE- And if anyone wanted to boost the sale of lightsabres then this would be an inventive way to do it.

EXAMPLE- Zaggora HotPants- Dessi Bell sent a free pair of weight loss shorts to some of the top bloggers in the industry and they reviewed them, the word spread online and they managed to sell to 300,000 women in 103 countries in a year.

EXAMPLE- Nike recently released a video to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their famous 'Just Do It' campaign. It both challenges the consumer and shows how simple marketing methods can be very effective.

A top marketing tip is that you need to get people talking about your product when you're not there. It needs to have remarkability.

Regardless of the marketing materials that a team decides to use, they have to consider the following questions:

1. Does it reach the desired target audience?
2. Is the marketing attractive and appealing to the target audience?
3. Will the marketing create more sales?
4. Is the marketing cost/time efficient? (there’s no point a team spending half a day on designing marketing materials if they think they will only make a handful of extra sales)

Fair trading Regulations

The law gives customers protection against unfair selling practices. MyBnk enterprise teams do not need to know specific Acts but they do need to have an overview of how fair trading regulations protect consumers.

The consumer has basic legal rights if the product is:

• given a misleading description
• of an unsatisfactory quality
• not fit for its intended purpose

Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994

This Act says that all products have to be of a 'satisfactory quality'. This means that they have to:

• be safe
• last for a reasonable amount of time
• be fit for their intended purpose
• have nothing wrong with them (unless the defect was noted at the time of sale)

Trade Descriptions Act

According to the Trade Descriptions Act, false or misleading information must not be given about products. For example, accurate information must be given about who made the product.

Fake designer goods that are marketed as genuine are a clear breach of the Trade Descriptions Act.

Consumer Credit Act 1974

This Act protects you when you borrow or buy on credit. The Consumer Credit Act states that:

• Businesses must have licences to give credit.
• No one under 18 is to be invited to borrow or buy on credit.
• Businesses have to state an Annual Percentage Rate (APR). If you sign a credit agreement at home you have several days in which you can tear up the agreement. This is called a 'cooling off period'.

Types of marketing

MyBnk teams don’t need to use a specific type of marketing- in fact marketing is an opportunity for them to use their creativity and to think outside the box.

However, for teams that are finding marketing a challenge- it may be useful to tell them about two established techniques.

1. Mass marketing- The mass market refers to all the customers.

EXAMPLE- Coca-Cola has tried to target the mass market, because it believes Coke has wide appeal to everyone in the population.

1. Niche marketing- This involves a business selling its product(s) in small, often lucrative, segments of a market. It is the opposite strategy to mass marketing. Many small businesses can identify unsatisfied consumer needs in a particular segment within a large industry, and they can develop products to meet these needs.

EXAMPLE- Classic FM meets the needs of those who like classical musical in the radio broadcasting industry and SAGA offers trips to over 50 year olds in the crowded holiday industry

Intellectual Property Rights

This is relevant to any MyBnk team who wants to protect their ideas in the future.

There are four main ways to protect an idea. They are called Intellectual Property Rights or IPR for short. These are ways of proving that you own the idea. They can be used to stop other people copying your idea.

The four main ways are:

• Patents - this is about how things work and what they are made of
• Registered designs - this is about what things look like
• Trade marks - this is about brands and product names
• Copyright - this is about written words including software, or pictures and drawings

The UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO), is the Government organisation that controls Intellectual Property Rights. It runs the patent registration process, registers designs and issues trade marks.

You can use more than one type of protection for your idea. You cannot protect a technical function with copyright or a design right. You cannot rely on a patent to protect the appearance or product name. So sometimes you need to use more than one type of protection for your idea.

Keep it Confidential!

If you have to tell other people about your idea before you have a patent application or registered design application in place, then make sure that they sign a confidentiality agreement. To apply for a patent, you must not have disclosed your idea without one of these in place!

Patents

A patent can protect how your idea works. It can protect what it is made of, and even how it is made. It does not protect the appearance of your idea. For that you must register a Design Right. So if your idea has a new function or any technical elements, use a patent to protect them. Keep the idea secret! Conduct your own searches to see what else is out there. Have a professional patent search conducted before you invest any money in your idea to make sure that the idea is not already owned by someone else.

See http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/patent.htm for full details.

Registered Designs

If your idea is simply a new look for an existing product with no technical changes then design rights can be a cost-effective route to give you some protection. Unregistered design rights exist automatically, but you would have to prove that someone has copied your design. If you register your design with the UK IPO then the person who supposedly copied it must prove that they did not.

See http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/design.htm for full details.

Trade Marks

A trade mark protects things like brands, business names, product names, advertising slogans and logos. If you have a business idea for a new service offering, this may be the best and only way to gain some protection. A good example is eBay. There are other online auction services, but the reputation eBay has built, and the strength of their brand steers people to use them in preference to others. The name cannot be descriptive, or already in use for the same goods or services. Conduct your own searches to see whether it is new.

See http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/tm.htm for full details.

Copyright

Copyright is an automatic right. If you write a book or draw a picture then it automatically belongs to you. You are the author of any artistic or literary work. Copyright exists as soon as you create the work. Copyright can only be used to stop someone copying the work. You cannot use it to protect the idea that is described in the work. So it does not stop the idea described being used by someone else. By committing your drawings to paper, or typing your product description, you automatically enjoy copyright in these creations. You cannot register copyright in the UK and you do not need to provided that you can show you produced the original work.

See http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy.htm for full details.