In developing a marketing profile for your massage therapy practice, you will need to evaluate different components of marketing. In general there are four principle components - product, pricing, promotion, and positioning - that is commonly referred to as the “Four Ps” or the marketing mix and are used in the assessment of products.
Services tend to have broader components which make up an extended marketing mix. What specific components are included in the extended marketing mix is not something that many marketing professionals agree. These other components, some say, are people, process and physical evidence. Others argue that packaging, which is usually considered as part of promotion, should also be considered since this is the first contact a customer will have with a product. Even yet others would also argue that even another element - philosophy - should be considered with services and products, especially when it relates to marketing to charities.
What elements should you considered? To start, let’s take a closer look at each of the nine (possible) principle elements of your marketing plan.
By definition, a product is the actual goods or services to be offered; therefore, utilizing the term ‘product’ as opposed to ’services’ is correct. When evaluating your product within the expanded marketing mix, this relates to:
* What is your product?
* How does it relate to the customer’s needs and wants?
It is what you have to offer to customers that includes the function and appearance of the product. It also includes the specific features and benefits of that product.
Identifying your product is just as important as setting an amount for your product. Pricing takes into account your profit margins, probable pricing of competitors and relative discounts or special reductions.
Promotion is the advertising, sales promotion, publicity, personal selling, and the various methods to promote the product used to pursue marketing objectives; otherwise, all of your branding efforts.
The fourth marketing mix component is positioning. This is how your true customers define you in relation to your competitors. This is your specialty - what makes your product special.
Positioning envelopes placement (or distribution) and place.
Placement is how the product gets to the customer. This could include the actual distribution system (or customer service flow) that performs transactional, logistical, and facilitating functions.
Place would be where the product is sold either online or retail, which geographic region or industry, to which target market segment (or specific group of customers) it is offered.
People could be any person that comes into contact with the customer that can have an impact on the overall experience of satisfaction of that customer. In the eyes of the customer, people are generally inseparable from the total service. People relate to how your service is presented to the customer, especially in terms of customer service. These people have relative power to influence your brand.
The actual process that is involved in providing your product to your customer needs to be reviewed. In order to profess excellence in customer satisfaction, the actual product (including those that provide it) will need to be stellar in all their activities.
Physical evidence is the offer to potential customers the chance to see what a service is like prior to purchasing the service. A service can not be experienced until a purchase is made; therefore, the customer needs to have a chance to identify with the experience, not experienced.
Testimonials from satisfied customers are an excellent way to let the customer experience a glimpse without actually purchasing the product. Another way is to offer workshops or seminars to your customers to test samples of your product. (Although in specific areas, such as the State of Texas, testimonials are illegal in advertising for massage therapist.)
Packaging is how the product is presented to the customer. How is your product placed? Is it presented in a way that is appealing to the customer?
Philosophy is the underlying philosophy or guiding beliefs of the organization behind the introduction of the product. If you have a specific believe or standard that is governed by your principles or beliefs, is it why you began your practice? Or are you an advocate for a cleaner environment, an end to pollution, and another activity that is near and dear to your heart?
When you carefully define these areas of your business, you will then be able to answer the primary “Four Cs” of customer solution, customer cost, convenience, and communication.
From providing therapeutic massage and spa treatments to building a massage therapy brand to a local massage therapy chapter, Cherisa Chapa, LMT provides multiple services to the industry of massage therapy through her web site, http://www.chapaenterprises.com Join her discussion forum at http://letstalk.brandmassage.com
Tags: marketing massage, massage business, massage therapy
