The term «marketing» has a difficult standing. Although the marketing mix with the 4 P’s was first described in the 1960’s, even many management economists still use the term in the reduced meaning of only one P: advertising and communication. Unfortunately, the term «self-marketing» is not doing any better!
Jerome McCarthy described the marketing mix with the 4 P’s: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. When my clients talk about marketing, they usually mean the promotion aspect. Many assume that marketing has to do exclusively with advertising and advertising with creativity. This is probably one of the reasons why marketing enjoys unbroken popularity among many job seekers.
Self-marketing is in a similar situation: most people use it as a synonym for self-promotion – which in turn is only one fourth of the marketing mix. So, it’s high time to look at the other three fourths for your strategic career design.
Distribution is more than just one channel
Let’s first turn to the aspect that most people know from experience: distribution (place). It is about the distribution channels for the offer of your You & Co. Are you now thinking only of external job applications via job ads? Then you are probably in good company. Self-promotion, however, is always and on different channels.
Your first channel is with your current employer. You need to make your performance visible in your day-to-day work for your internal development. In addition, you should always be traceable on social networks, because: Your next ideal job might be open exactly when you are not looking for a job. And when you finally enter the job market, it is advantageous that you are also on the move on different channels.
Think about WHAT you are selling!
In my experience, the most neglected part of the marketing mix is the product. Do you know what you are offering on the labour market? Can you describe it precisely and show what makes it stand out from your competitors’ offers?
All too often, people go to the market with a hawker’s tray of different offers, metaphorically speaking. However, it would make sense, analogous to a provider on the product market, to streamline one’s own product range through sensible specialisation and to concentrate on the services with which they generate the greatest added value.
A personal and professional assessment serves to define your offer. Here, the fourth part of the marketing mix also comes into consideration: the price. In a differentiated view, this includes more than the salary, which is often considered exclusively, as well as the monetary fringe benefits. Instead, it includes all the aspects of your professional life for which you are prepared to accept a reduction in salary.
In your strategic career design, it is therefore worthwhile as an entrepreneur in your own right to learn from the most successful players in the product and service markets, who always keep an eye on the entire marketing mix!