The Six Ps of Marketing Keep these essentials in mind to make the most of your promotional efforts.

When she was 16, Kayla Branscum needed a research project forher entrepreneurship class at school. That's when she lookedaround her hometown of Batesville, Arkansas, and discovered thatthe college town had no coffeehouse.

As Kayla dug into her research, she realized her idea for acoffeehouse was more than a fun class project-it was a greatbusiness idea. Why? She already had two of the six Ps of marketingcovered: She had the right product (coffee) and the right people(college students who buy lots of coffee). Now, she thought, if shecould just nail down the other four.

What Are the Six Ps?

The six Ps of marketing are elements that ideally convergeharmoniously to deliver a product or service that customerswon't be able to resist. They include the right product,presented to the right people at the right price, atthe right place, with the right promotion, followedby the product's dependable performance.

In Kayla's case, she knew her idea was solid. After all,what college kid doesn't need a cup of joe every now and then?Her research project provided the opportunity to perfect theelements of price and place, which she did before openingKayla's Java Café a few months later.

Opening day provided Kayla the perfect opportunity to promoteher café. She did that by providing free samples of coffee tothe more than 250 people who lined up that day. She also leveragedher unique position as a teen business owner when sending out pressreleases, and soon magazines and newspapers around the country tookthe bait and featured stories about the teen biz whiz.

As time went on, she relied on a different kind of promotion."Word-of-mouth is the best form of promotion," accordingto Kayla. Customers also found they could rely on dependablebusiness performance, the sixth P, every time they stepped foot inthe café.

This teen entrepreneur also watched for new ways to respond tocustomer needs, such as by adding pastries and deli sandwiches toher menu when she discovered a potential lunch crowd. She alsoadded cold drinks for customers who didn't want to consume hotcoffee during the summer. She even invented new coffee concoctions,such as The Dreamsicle, that customers could find nowhere else.

Ignore at Your Own Risk

As any entrepreneur can tell you, the six Ps of marketing arevital to the success of any business. But even the mostconscientious entrepreneur sometimes forgets the rules. Just askAnisah Rasheed, owner of Sister Clowns in Roanoke, Virginia, aservice that provides entertainment for children's birthdayparties.

Anisah has appeared on television, in magazines and newspapers,and has even won Black Enterprise magazine's Kidpreneurof the Year award. One less than perfect moment, however, standsout in her mind. Faced with an important potential customer, shediscovered that she lacked the right promotion-she'd forgottenher business cards.

It was a valuable lesson for Anisah, who now carries her cardswith her and keeps extras in her mom's car just in case.She's also become a little more creative in promoting herbusiness. "I've expanded my marketing to includevolunteering my clown services for special events and appearing asa guest speaker," she explains.

And when it comes to providing her customers with dependablebusiness performance, Anisah leaves nothing to chance. When parentsbook her services, she has them fill out a client assessment sheetto determine their needs, then bases her performances on thatinformation. She arrives early at parties so she'll have timeto prepare. "When I arrive for a performance, I meet thebirthday child, find out where I'm going to be located, get setup, and go to work," she says.

Her work doesn't end after the party wraps up either. Anisahgives the host five business cards so they can pass them along tofriends, and then writes a thank-you letter in which she invitessuggestions for improvements.

As both of these enterprising entrepreneurs have discovered,keeping the six Ps of marketing in mind can vastly improve theirbusinesses and their bottom lines.