Similarities between local market and national market

Depending on your business, you may need to consider national marketing strategies, local marketing campaigns or a combination of the two. As their names suggest, national marketing involves promoting your business across the country while local marketing is focused on a small and specific geographic area.

Adapting the Four P’s of Marketing for a Local or National

Product: According to MindTools, the product or service needs to satisfy customers’ specific needs. If you have a bakery, for example, you can focus your products to meet a specific customer requirement, like gluten-free products. On a local level, your messaging can include your local ingredients and the local experts who craft the baked goods. On a national level, you may want to talk about the success of the franchise in creating consistently delicious products from family recipes.
Place: The place is where you sell the products. On a local level, this may include your brick-and-mortar store and an e-commerce website. On a national level, this can include your e-commerce website or franchise locations.
Price: How much your customers are willing to pay for your products may differ based on geography. For example, customers in a big city may be willing to pay more for products compared to those living in a suburb or rural area.
Promotion: This is the method of sharing your messaging with your customers. It can include advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing and public relations. Regardless of whether you’re taking a local or national approach, it’s vital to look at the competition to ensure your messaging stands out. Timing of the promotion is also key, as certain geographic locations may be more seasonally focused than others. For example, promoting bathing suits in January in New York may be more challenging than promoting them in July