Product

A Detailed description of your products and services that you are offering and the value proposition for those items.

Also describe in detail the value cocreation aspect of your value proposition, and what problems each of them is solving. A way of thinking about this, is that you as the producer and provider, hold the ability to offer a particular value proposition. However, it is not until the client purchase and uses the product or goes through the service, that they are able to find and create their own value. As value comes in several different aspects. Whether that be the actual function of the product/service or socially from a higher status, or epistemic from new knowledge they gathered. A Great resource to learn more about the various value aspects is Why We Buy What We Buy: A Theory of Consumption Values – Jagdish Sheth (jagsheth.com)

Pricing

Outline your pricing strategy by explaining the price points and the reasoning behind the prices. In addition, this section you can outline your projected sales per each item and your projected revenues, as well as the cost of goods sold (COGS)/variable costs per each item being sold, as well as the reasoning. A great guide to pricing can be found on this Hubspot article

Place

This is all about the channels of distribution. Here you want to answer the question of how clients will find and get your products, as well as the sales location description. Whether that be physical or virtual. Additionally, you want to outline your supplies and your relationship with them for either the products directly, or the inventory of supplies used to manufacture your products/perform your services.

Promotion

• Communication Cycle/models

Here we can look at the communication cycle:

The way messaging works is that the Sender (yourself) will Encode a message by transferring your thoughts, values, and beliefs into a cohesive message, which you then select your Medium of the Message such as a letter, vocal, digital, physical, etc. The receiver (your target audience, or specific person) then receives and interprets the message via the medium. They then reverse the process back to you the sender. At all points though there is this concept known as noise. Noise is any background information that interferes with the message, it could be language differences, previous information, mixed signals, think of a way that you have misinterpreted a message in the past, which is what we call noise. The clearer the message the easier it is to transmit it through noise.

• Touchpoints

Once you understand the communication cycle, it makes it easier to understand touchpoints. A touchpoint is any time you the producer/provider interacts with a consumer/customer. Whether that be intentional or not, and whether you are present or not. A way to think about it is, any time a consumer/customer interacts with your brand, be it online with social media, receiving a message, or even by dealing with your brand ambassadors. These are all touchpoints for your brand.

Your role is to identify which touchpoints you want to operate under, and how to control them and the messaging to be able to limit the noise produced. The way we do this is through our communication mix. Several key strategies make up the communication mix to effectively reach your consumers.

• Communication Mix

Personal selling

Directly communicating and speaking with the consumer or customer. The easiest way to get the right information to your client while being the most direct touchpoint. To learn more about personal selling, we recommend this article

Advertising

Could be radio, tv, social media, however you see it, these are the direct ads to either pull people directly to use your product or service or remind them of your existence.

Digital marketing

What is your digital strategy, how are you utilising your website, and social media. What is the content you are producing and what is your schedule for it. When considering a digital strategy, Forbes has an excellent article exploring the digital marketing.

Promotions

What are the promotions that you have on, to drive people to you and your services, can think of sales, promotional items, punch cards…

Public Relations

What is your strategy to engage the community, your brand communities, what are your objectives around a triple bottom line (PEOPLE, PROFIT, PLANET). It isn’t necessary to consider or act with a triple bottom line, but it is one way that you can connect better with some target audiences. Another great resource to learn a lot more about PR and managing it, is found on the Prowly.