Marketing plans are like plumbing. As long as everything’s working, we don’t give it much thought. But when there’s a break in the line, it rightly gets all our attention. Sometimes, however, we miss or even ignore a small leak or a change in water pressure or some other seemingly minor problem. That’s why it’s smart to regularly and systematically look at your whole plumbing system and deal with even minor things immediately. Same for your marketing plan. 

Just like with plumbing, finding and fixing the minor problems can often help you avoid a potentially major problem down the road. So where in your marketing system do you look for problems? Start with the “Four P’s” of marketing — product, price, placement and promotion

Potential “leaks” or problems include products without discernible excellence or benefits to customers, pricing without clear value, placement in the wrong locations or only in extremes, and promotions failing to compellingly communicate to potential customers. Each of these areas demands your careful evaluation on at least an annual basis.

Here are four questions to get you started:

Products and Service

Does the product or service we offer reflect a thoughtful mix of the company’s expertise/capability/legacy and the actual market demands for that product or service?

In basic marketing principles, the product is simply the product or service your company offers to its customers — what you’re selling. Sometimes businesses offer a product or service based on its interest and ability to produce that product or service; it’s their bread and butter, so to speak.

Other times, businesses offer a product or service based more on market research; this is what the market seems to need or demand, therefore the business will offer it. Regardless of the reasons why you’re offering a particular product or service, you want to find the balance between your company’s expertise, capability or legacy and the actual demands of the market (which, of course, overlap with the other P’s of marketing). 

So, here’s the question to ask each year as you plan and execute your business: Does the product or service we offer reflect a thoughtful mix of the company’s expertise/capability/legacy and the actual market demands for that product or service? In other words, is the company not just able to make a product or service, but to do so with a level of excellence suitable to the demands of its potential customers? Do other companies offer a similar product or service? How do they do it? Also, what is the outlook for this product or service and how does it need to grow, evolve or diminish over time? 

Price vs. Profit

Does the price we post reflect a reasonable profit for the company but also a reasonable value for the customer?

Price, of course, is simply what your company charges for its product or service— what customers must pay to obtain it. Many variables affect how to price a product or service, from the actual cost to produce that product or service to the percentage above that cost a company seeks to identify as profit. Pricing may change over time and may not always go up.

Of course, while some companies offer seasonal or other special pricing, discounts or other lower-price offers, other companies may set an unchanging price, depending more on other factors to communicate value and avoid the complexities of tracking discounts or dealing with fluctuations in pricing. On the other side of the transaction, some customers may shop for your product or service based on price alone — and while the lowest price may garner more initial looks as your product or service, the lowest price doesn’t always win the day. 

So, here’s the question to ask each year as you plan and execute your business: Does the price we post reflect a reasonable profit for the company but also a reasonable value for the customer? The key word here, of course, is what constitutes “reasonable” for both company and customer — and both sides of the transaction must be considered.

Similar to the questions asked about Product, find out what your competitors charge for a similar product or service — not merely because you may want to undercut their price but more importantly so you can take steps to prove the value behind the price you’re charging. Also, track pricing over time, do the math to determine overall profit and constantly evaluate whether it makes more sense, over time, to offer discounts or to hold a steady price.

Customer Engagement

Is our product or service placed in the best locations for maximizing customer engagement?

Placement is where you put your company’s product or service to get it in front of customers. It overlaps with Promotion, of course, but bears significant consideration as a standalone marketing category. If you run a traditional brick and mortar storefront, placement is minimally the geographic location in which the storefront exists.

This includes your store’s state, city, its location within that city (downtown, rural setting, etc.) and more. But since you likely have a website (which definitely overlaps with Promotion), your store has a “place” on the internet, too. Placement can also include how you categorize or communicate your product or service amongst other similar but competitive offerings in the marketplace in general or in retail locations (i.e., where your product appears in a store setting, such as shelf or display location). 

So, the question to ask each year as you plan and execute your business: Is our product or service placed in the best locations for maximizing customer engagement?

Many variables affect how you will answer this question and it’s important to avoid the extremes — we need our product everywhere or only in this single location — unless you offer a product or service that needs an extreme placement. Minimally, most businesses operating a physical storefront as well as an online storefront need to think about the customer experience at both locations.

Ask whether your products or services are easy to find, your storefronts easy to navigate and whether they provide true value to the customer. And keep in mind you’ll often find the best answers to those questions by asking the customers themselves.

Value and Promotion

Is our product or service promoted effectively, meaning the promotions not only communicate the value of those products or services but also get this message to the customers?

Promotion is how you communicate the value of your products or services to your potential customers. It’s advertising, public relations and other means of pushing key messages to the places you think potential customers will see them. Promotion usually brings together key components of Product, Price and Placement, putting them all, you hope, in a cohesive and compelling message.

Promotion can occur through paid advertising, social media campaigns, website design, printed brochures and catalogs, video and more. These days, it’s virtually unheard of to think a business can meaningfully or successfully exist without some kind of online presence. Conversely, however, the idea of using printed materials for promotion is still legitimate provided they accomplish key business goals and address real customer needs or wants. 

So, the question to ask each year as you plan and execute your business: Is our product or service promoted effectively, meaning the promotions not only communicate the value of those products or services but also get this message to the customers?

As with Product, Price and Placement, consider the Promotions of your competitors, not only where they advertise (trade publications, billboards, banner ads, etc.), but also what they advertise. Do they emphasize a particular value proposition? Are they all about low price? Do they seem to be at every event or present in multiple online arenas? The goal here is not necessarily to match your competitor’s efforts but to think through yours, making sure your promotional decisions are based on current research and a solid business case.

Finally, in the matter of evaluating your marketing efforts, don’t be afraid or dismayed at the prospect of raising more questions than answers. In the end, you may actually discover your marketing plan is in very good shape. But if you find a small “leak” in the system — a question that doesn’t have a clear answer — then take the time to further evaluate, research, plan a fix and keep things running smoothly.