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Article:
Understanding the Difference Between Marketing and Promotion by: Stone Evans Are you an online marketer? Or do you simply promote affiliate programs? Marketing is truly the most misunderstood word in use today on the Internet. Let me see if I can clarify this issue just a bit. In Marketing 101 at your local university, marketing is actually the process of Product, Place, Price and Promotion. PRODUCT No business can exist without a product or service to sell. In a nutshell, entrepreneurs are the people who believe in a product, service or idea, so much that they are willing to invest their lives into the development of their dream. Historically, every major corporation in the world was started by an entrepreneur with a dream and the drive to make it a reality. However, there comes a time in the life of every corporation when those who fear the gambling nature of their founder, squash the entrepreneurial drive that made the company a viable concern in the first place. The entrepreneur will either submit to the careful nature of the stockholders, or he will be forced to leave the company he created. The only entrepreneurs who withstand the pressure to move more carefully are those who have maintained majority control over their companies. PLACE In the offline world, place is defined by location. On the Internet, place is defined by domain name and the web hosting service chosen. Both online and offline, place can make or break a company without respect to the quality and value of the product, service or idea. PRICE Selecting a price is determined first on a basis of whether the company wants to be seen as a discount or a value company. Take for example Wal-Mart and Staples. Wal-Mart is the lead discounter in the marketplace. Staples on the other hand is the specialist in office supplies. Both sell a significant number of office supplies despite the fact that the lowest price can usually be found at Wal-Mart. As a value dealer, Staples can afford to charge more for their products than Wal-Mart. So the question for you is whether you want to position your company as a discount or value company. Testing has shown that products and services can be sold at any number of prices and still reach a significant number of people. The challenge of selecting the best price for your product or service will require a certain amount of testing. UNDERSTANDING THE PRICING EQUATION Let's assume we are selling a product. Let us also assume that we know that the product can be sold for $10 or $50. Let us also assume that if the price dips below $10 or rises above $'50
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