Growing Your Online Presence as an E-commerce Brand - How to do it A brand isn't the product but the persona that it builds around itself
By Ashish Gurnani •
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The first time we learn of the 4 P's of marketing mix, we tend to approach it with a very traditional mindset. Something more apt for brick & mortar businesses rather than online or omnichannel businesses.
However, with the boom in e-commerce, gradually business owners are starting to see the marketing mix and more in a new light entirely.
Product:
The product is always going to be the core of any business. At the end of the day, if your product/service isn't good, no amount of marketing efforts can sell it after a point of time. The key for any business that's starting is to focus on building one product to its best possible potential.
Researching a niche and creating a product based on that is your best bet. Find the most cost-effective ways of how you can make your product or service available to the customers. You can keep working on your sole product based on feedback and eventually be able to make a product that your customer's love. Gradually over time, you can expand to more verticals that your existing and potential customer base may like to purchase. Focusing on one product initially also means that you are only shipping one product which makes it a much simpler and cheaper process, to begin with.
Place:
The biggest advantage of having an online business is that you aren't geographically bound to cater to only a certain area. With the right kind of setup for logistics, you can cater to a wide market, whether it's pan-India or globally. However, it's better to cater to the domestic market before investing in shipping abroad since it's an expensive and time taking process.
Price:
Based on the niche and target market, the price needs to be a perfect balance between being lucrative for the customers and at the same time, enough to keep you going. India is an extremely price-sensitive market so if your product is expensive as compared to your competition, chances are customers might not be attracted to a new brand as quickly. On the other end, some customers might think extremely low prices might be 'too good to be true' for certain products and services. Thus, you must do your research and test varying price points with promotional offers to find the prices that work best for you.
Promotion:
With developing tastes and globalisation, storytelling is the actual crux of every promotion that you'll put out there. How you tell the story of the brand, why you started it, the need for the product- all of it needs to have a story of passion behind it. A brand isn't the product but the persona that it builds around itself. As the brand grows more and more products can be absorbed into the persona. Even with promotional offers like discounts, the visuals and tone of voice need to match the brand's established personality. How the brand looks like, sounds like and the product- all of them together create how the customer or end consumer perceives the brand and it's critical that they are in sync at all times.
