This Small Business Marketing Mix Part Three podcast is the final part of the marketing mix series. It covers aspects of packaging and positioning. Here’s the transcript…
Introduction
“I’m Tracy Heatley and thank you for listening to this episode. 
This episode is part three of my marketing mix episodes, so if you’ve not yet listened to the other parts, which are episode 25 and 26, do go back and have a listen to those episodes before you continue with this, because each episode of the three builds on the previous one.
Your marketing mix is a massive part of your marketing strategy, so it’s important to develop a mix that’s right for your business.
In this episode I’m going to be talking about Packaging and Positioning.
Packaging
I mentioned previously about letting your brand shine through your promotion. When it comes to packaging your branding is everything.
You want to make sure that through your packaging, you are communicating the right message to your target audience. They say that an image speaks a thousand words, and your packaging does too.
You need to present your product in the right way, so that you attract the right customers. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it must be the most luxurious packaging because it doesn’t. It depends on how you’ve positioned your brand, and we’ll cover more about this later in this episode.
Your Brand
Your brand is so much more than a logo. It’s the way your business is perceived. Will your packaging catch your customer attention? The way your packaging makes your customer feel is crucial too.
Let’s take some popular brands to use as an example. Whilst I’ve been covering the marketing mix, I’ve referred to the Tiffany brand, so let’s use that one again. If you’ve ever bought or received a Tiffany product as a gift, you’ll be familiar with the packaging. It has a distinct turquoise colour. The box feels like high quality. As you open the bag or the lid on the box, you get to reveal your product through the luxury paper it’s secured in. There is something rather exclusive about the packaging that adds to your customer experience.
At the other end of the scale, if you bought a cheap torch from Aldi, would you be bothered about luxury packaging. Probably not!
On Point Packaging
In an older episode, called Branding Who Gives A Crap, I was talking specifically about the Who Gives A Crap packaging on the bamboo toilet roll I’d bought. Every singe toilet roll is wrapped in luxury tissue paper. If I purchased a two pack from my local corner shop, would I expect the same. No, I wouldn’t.
This all links back to the price element of the marketing mix that was included in episode 25. Make sure that your packaging reflects the price of your product.
If you’ve got a new product, then perhaps test the product and the packaging as a prototype, before investing heavily in production.
When you’re deciding on your packaging, think about your brand, make sure the brand colours and messages are prominent.
Stand Out
Think about making your packaging stand out. You must make sure that it’s functional, easy to use, easy to remove and think about health and safety. It must be safe and display any relevant legal warnings that may be applicable to your industry.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that packaging is just about products because it’s not. It applies to service providers too, but in the form of physical evidence. Like your premises or website for examples.
Positioning
Marketing strategy and planning is a particular area of expertise for me, so I could talk about this all day long. However, what I am going to do for the purposes of giving you a clear understanding of what this means for your business is, I’m going give you an overview and then pinpoint a few basic elements that you can cover for yourself.
Positioning Is About
Essentially, positioning is about what you ought to be doing to market your product or your service to your customers. It always tends to be mentioned last as part of the marketing mix. However, it links directly to how you should be marketing your product or service in terms of product, price, place, and promotions, like advertising and social media. You need to make it clear what position you have in the market. What position are you in compared to your key competitors and that kind of thing.
It’s about how your position your price, location, messages, and promotions to make sure that all your marketing is directed to your ideal customers.
To Do This
To do this, you need to have gone through everything that I spoke about in episode 24 about developing your marketing strategy and doing a competitor analysis as described in episode 18. You need to do these things first, and this part of your marketing mix will flow.
Otherwise, you won’t know if you need to opt for a differentiated or undifferentiated strategy.
Do you price high, mid, or low level?
As you realise how all elements of your marketing mix are interlinked and you recognise the importance of doing the groundworks, please go back through all the elements, so that any decisions that you make about positioning are based on accurate and current analysis.
If You Need My Help
If you need my help with anything to do with your small business marketing strategy, do get in touch with me via my website www.tracyheatley.com.
As you subscribe to this podcast, do leave me a review, because you could win a free 40 minute online mentoring session with me as part of my monthly podcast competition.
You can leave reviews on Apple and Audible. If you’re podcasting platform doesn’t support reviews, feel free to head over to the contact page on my website and message me your review and I’ll pop you into the draw.
My website is tracyheatley.com
I’m Tracy Heatley and thank you for listening to my Be Better With Tracy Heatley podcast”.
Better Business, Better You!
