My 4 P's: People

We have successfully made it to my 4th and final P, people. Oh, how I love this one! When I have made it to people it means that I’ve actually created something of value to myself and to the outside world. It means that the 3 P’s before were successful in someway. It is the final level. Typically referred to as an “end user”, which feels so impersonal to me. I prefer to just say people. My funnel typically looks like the people who are my clients and then their clients having the experience of the product that I created. 

Stephen in the Safari Toile Mask to mitigate COVID-19

Finding people to purchase my products or who would benefit from my services always feels like the hardest thing to do. Maintaining clients for repeat projects, or for all around new client/project relationships each its own planning and processing to be fruitful. I’ve been very fortunate to create that at a time of need. But who do you connect the products to the people? This is where marketing taps into the front end and the back end of any business. Last year I was introduced to a book by Seth Godin called “This is Marketing”. It has proved to be my marketing bible. It is the book that forced me to look at my business from a different perspective and being the journey of refining what and how I present myself to the world. This is marketing. 

People are vital to any business. Whether it is a B2B or B2C transaction, people are the ultimate interaction. I have to interact with the person that is hiring me for a project, and then have a relationship with them. Once the project is completed that client is going to have a relationship with their customers and in between my work connects and influences the relationship. Art is what binds product to people. 

I believe this with every fiber of my being. An in store experience can bring customers into a store, and how the in store experience is presented is through art and design. How the business presents the products within the store influences customers to purchase. In todays world we have unfettered access to people through social media, and technology. Content creation and the curation of the message is marketing, but if you aren’t connected to people and if no one is acknowledging the work are you really filling a void, being valuable, and helping others. 

I’ve talked about social responsibility in the past and I’ll say it again for the people in the back. I have a social responsibility to create art for myself and others. It my mission to create to experiences for your enjoyment and delight. Nothing is possible without you, the people