The marketing mix is bullshit, you just need a hungry market
Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 10:34 am
BullshitColumn – If you have had an economics subject during your education, you are undoubtedly aware of the marketing mix that you ‘have to’ apply. The mix is important if you want to do good marketing, ‘they’ say. So then you learn that you have to think carefully about the 4P’s, 5P’s or 7P’s: product, price, place, promotion, personnel, environment (physical evidence), and (delivery) process.
Bullshit.
For you and me as service entrepreneurs and with the advent of the internet, there is a much more important factor. The most important factor. Without it, you will get nowhere. I would like to illustrate the importance of this with a story – legendary in marketing land.
Hamburger stand
One of the most successful American copywriters ever, Gary Halbert, was fond of asking a now legendary question: "If you and I both owned a hamburger stand and had a contest to see who could sell the most hamburgers, what competitive advantage would you most want to have to win?"
blender mixThink about it…what would you choose?
Based on the (in my opinion tired) 7 P's of the marketing mix, you will probably arrive at one of the following answers:
When Gary asked this question during one of his many talks, the audience would respond with answers like, "I want the best quality meat" or "I want to be in a place where a lot of kazakhstan telegram number list people pass by." Someone else would say, "I want a special sauce with a secret recipe that no one else has." Another would say he wanted a bigger booth than the other.
Gary always replied, "That's fine. You can have all these benefits." He only wanted one benefit, and that's a hungry crowd. And when you hear his answer, it's the most logical answer. The answer that doesn't appear in any way in that world-famous marketing mix that I also had to know by heart during my business studies.
They must be hungry!
No matter how good your quality is, how big your hamburger stand is… You can be in the busiest place in Amsterdam, the moment no one is hungry, you are gone. You have no business. It is slogging and toiling to make a living from what you do. You need your hungry market to be able to sell your hamburgers. Regardless of where you are, how much advertising you do, whether the quality is good or not so good, whether your staff behaves customer-friendly or rude.
If no one or very few people are hungry, you as an entrepreneur live in poverty. Then there is simply no one (or far too few people) to whom you can sell your hamburgers.
You need your own hungry market
Wherever you are, whatever you are selling, whoever is standing next to you with virtually the same offer, once you have a hungry market for your service, you will sell. You need your own hungry market. You too, with your service (whatever it is) can only build a business if there are people who are waiting for what you offer. Who are hungry for what you can give them. Your own target group – the target group that is tailor-made for you.
I'm HungryPeople with an appetite buy, simple
With a well-chosen target audience, you sell more. A lot more. I would like to go through the biggest advantages with you for choosing (and therefore limiting yourself to) a specific target audience. These are the five biggest advantages of a well-chosen target audience – an audience that is hungry for you.
Benefit 1: Sufficient volume of customers
A hungry market ensures that there are enough people who will use your service in the first place and that you can therefore earn enough. Obvious: there is a real chance that what you offer is very important and interesting, but that the hungry market is missing. And that is why you are struggling to make your business flourish.
Benefit 2: Customers recognize themselves
Once you know your hungry market, you can make sure that potential customers can relate to the way you talk about the people you help. They understand that they are part of your hungry market. They see and hear you communicate in a way that speaks to them. Your website has great appeal because it is written specifically for them. They can relate to your descriptions.
Benefit 3: Potential customers feel understood
In addition, a well-chosen target group or niche (two words that in my experience mean the same thing; I will therefore use them interchangeably) makes potential customers experience that you specifically understand them . They experience that you understand what they are going through, which makes it more logical that you will be able to help them further with what you do. That will never be the case if you have not made a very clear choice for a specific target group!
Bullshit.
For you and me as service entrepreneurs and with the advent of the internet, there is a much more important factor. The most important factor. Without it, you will get nowhere. I would like to illustrate the importance of this with a story – legendary in marketing land.
Hamburger stand
One of the most successful American copywriters ever, Gary Halbert, was fond of asking a now legendary question: "If you and I both owned a hamburger stand and had a contest to see who could sell the most hamburgers, what competitive advantage would you most want to have to win?"
blender mixThink about it…what would you choose?
Based on the (in my opinion tired) 7 P's of the marketing mix, you will probably arrive at one of the following answers:
When Gary asked this question during one of his many talks, the audience would respond with answers like, "I want the best quality meat" or "I want to be in a place where a lot of kazakhstan telegram number list people pass by." Someone else would say, "I want a special sauce with a secret recipe that no one else has." Another would say he wanted a bigger booth than the other.
Gary always replied, "That's fine. You can have all these benefits." He only wanted one benefit, and that's a hungry crowd. And when you hear his answer, it's the most logical answer. The answer that doesn't appear in any way in that world-famous marketing mix that I also had to know by heart during my business studies.
They must be hungry!
No matter how good your quality is, how big your hamburger stand is… You can be in the busiest place in Amsterdam, the moment no one is hungry, you are gone. You have no business. It is slogging and toiling to make a living from what you do. You need your hungry market to be able to sell your hamburgers. Regardless of where you are, how much advertising you do, whether the quality is good or not so good, whether your staff behaves customer-friendly or rude.
If no one or very few people are hungry, you as an entrepreneur live in poverty. Then there is simply no one (or far too few people) to whom you can sell your hamburgers.
You need your own hungry market
Wherever you are, whatever you are selling, whoever is standing next to you with virtually the same offer, once you have a hungry market for your service, you will sell. You need your own hungry market. You too, with your service (whatever it is) can only build a business if there are people who are waiting for what you offer. Who are hungry for what you can give them. Your own target group – the target group that is tailor-made for you.
I'm HungryPeople with an appetite buy, simple
With a well-chosen target audience, you sell more. A lot more. I would like to go through the biggest advantages with you for choosing (and therefore limiting yourself to) a specific target audience. These are the five biggest advantages of a well-chosen target audience – an audience that is hungry for you.
Benefit 1: Sufficient volume of customers
A hungry market ensures that there are enough people who will use your service in the first place and that you can therefore earn enough. Obvious: there is a real chance that what you offer is very important and interesting, but that the hungry market is missing. And that is why you are struggling to make your business flourish.
Benefit 2: Customers recognize themselves
Once you know your hungry market, you can make sure that potential customers can relate to the way you talk about the people you help. They understand that they are part of your hungry market. They see and hear you communicate in a way that speaks to them. Your website has great appeal because it is written specifically for them. They can relate to your descriptions.
Benefit 3: Potential customers feel understood
In addition, a well-chosen target group or niche (two words that in my experience mean the same thing; I will therefore use them interchangeably) makes potential customers experience that you specifically understand them . They experience that you understand what they are going through, which makes it more logical that you will be able to help them further with what you do. That will never be the case if you have not made a very clear choice for a specific target group!