Minding your P’s and Q’s

The thing with our line of work is that you don’t often switch off. The work we do surrounds us all the time; marketing is not a 9-5 job or preoccupation. Or maybe I’m just a marketing geek who needs to get a hobby (there’s a knitting group that gathers in the café we can see from our office window, there’s a spare seat. Perhaps it has my name on it?… perhaps not.)

Anyway this week I am mostly preoccupied with P-ing. It’s got nothing to do with the September rain or the incontinence of the knitting ladies. No, it’s the 4 Ps of the marketing mix, the first thing you ever learn as a shiny new grad (when you are not being shouted at). Product, Price, Place, Promotion. It’s such a gloriously simple concept. Why oh why then do some many of the local retailers of Tunbridge Wells refuse to entertain the 4th ?

A friend of mine had a friend recently who opened a beautiful new shop selling delicious fresh product that was oh so right for the good citizens of the wells. Right prices, perfect place. When my friend congratulated the owner and asked him what marketing he had planned, the chap replied – “marketing? Oh I am not going to do any of that” with a look of utter disdain as if my mate had just told him he’d secured him the best seat next to Beryl at Friday’s knitting group and a knitting pattern for a pair of giant knickers to make the group green with envy. Business lasted less than 6 months. It’s a common theme. They come, they go. (The knitters as well as the retail outlets of RWT judging by their age).

Another example: There’s a really lovely French café that’s opened in Tunbridge wells, a bold move to take on the ubiquitous coffee shop brands. It sells coffee that is better and cheaper than the big brands and the environment is delightful. It’s got Gaelic charm in spades and the smiley staff tolerate my children’s oh so charming habit of trying to snaffle as many of the posh sugar lumps into their pockets as they can with cheerful resignation. But, it’s almost always empty (we Dahl’s know this first hand as we are single handily mounting our own quiet crusade to keep it in business by virtue of our presence) while the big brands have customers busting out of their beany seams.

Wake up and smell the coffee people. Get yourself out there. Do some old fashioned marketing to draw those coffee loving mamas and papa’s and their offspring micro-scootering through your doors.

You are the David to Starbuck’s Goliath. Be brave. Behave like a challenger brand. You don’t need Baz Lurhman, a 6 figure budget and an A - lister to get people’s attention. You just need to decide what your brand is all about, why it matters to your customers and come up with a few good ideas to get on their radars.

Never mind minding your Ps and Qs, if you forget your 4th P you can forget any queues.

Oh and PS – Mad Men started last night. My future postings may become a little preoccupied with it, so apologies in advance.