The Four Principles of Marketing Strategy

By Brian Tracy

There are four principles to effective marketing strategy. Each of these principles must be thought through carefully and then continually revisited as the business grows and changes. Any changes in any one of these areas can have an enormous impact on the sales of profitability of the business.

Principle One: Specialisation
You must decide exactly which area of your product or service market you are going to specialise in. You cannot be all things to all customers. Too many businesses make the mistake of trying to offer too many products or services to too many types of customers at too many prices in too many ways. This is not the way to wealth.

Principle Two: Differentiation
This is perhaps the most important strategic marketing principle of all. All business success requires a differentiation of some kind. All business success requires that you be both different from and better than your competitors in some clear, distinct way.

Who is your competitor? Why doesn't your ideal customer buy from you? Why does your ideal customer buy from your competitor? What value does your ideal customer see in buying from your competitor that he or she does not see in buying from you? What could you do to offset this perception?

The only hope you have in acquiring customers is to focus most of your time and attention on determining exactly who they are, where they are, and what you have to do to get them to buy from you rather than from someone else.

Principle Three: Segment Your Market
If you offer more than one product or service, you will have to divide your potential customers into separate market segments.

You will then have to identify the characteristics and qualities of prospective customers in each of these segments in order to advertise and sell to them effectively.

Principle Four: Concentration
Once you have applied the principles of specialisation, differentiation, and segmentation to yourproducts and services, and to your customers and markets, you now have to concentrate your limited resources.

You have to focus your time, energy, and money on those prospective customers that you have identified who are the most likely to buy from you the soonest.

Action Exercise
List three reasons why a prospect should buy from you rather than from one of your competitors.