Charles Alvarez

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The Four Keys to Effective Marketing – Part 1

All business strategy is ultimately marketing strategy. Whenever you are worried about the health or future of your business, get back to thinking about marketing and selling. Focus single-mindedly on increasing sales and revenues. Cutting expenses and controlling costs is an ongoing necessity, but you can’t cost-cut your way to business success. You have to increase cash flow, and this only comes from selling more of your products or services.
No matter how challenging or competitive the economy appears, as much as 80% of your market is still untapped. There are almost always hidden opportunities around you. Your ability to uncover and take advantage of those opportunities is the true test of competence as an executive or as a business.

Four Keys To Marketing

There are four essential elements of marketing. These are: Specialization, Differentiation, Segmentation and Concentration. You must implement and execute effectively in all four areas to survive and thrive in your business. A lack or weakness in any one area can lead to underachievement and even the failure of the enterprise.

Decide Who You Are and What You Do

Specialization requires that you focus on specific products or services, specific markets or specific customer needs. You must fight the temptation to try to offer too many products and services to too many customers in too many areas. You must specialize, both in your own mind, and in the mind of your customer.

What is it exactly that your product or service is designed to achieve, avoid or preserve for your customer? What are the core competencies or proprietary methods or technologies that enable you to specialize in this area? What specific problem or need can you solve or satisfy for your customer? And of all the different results you can get with your business, where do you, should you, could you specialize?

Keep A Tight Focus

Many companies work very hard to master an area of specialization that is highly valued by a particular type of customer. It may take several years of hard, dedicated commitment to build a successful business around this core competency. But then, they develop the “walk on water” mentality, and begin thinking that they can produce other products or services equally well. In no time, a company can begin to diffuse its energies and resources, moving out of its area of specialization where it is successful into areas it neither knows nor understands.