What is marketing and why it is the most important part of a business
Warm Regards to all my readers before starting this piece of Write Up. In this article we will be focusing on Marketing and why it is the most important part of a business. Marketing, well we are aware of this term from our childhood. As we grew up, we came to know more and more about Marketing from our practical experiences. Many of us became familiar with Marketing through Television Ads which were aired in between our favorite daily soaps or Sports Events.
Some famous personality endorses a product and we fall in love with the same. I remember during my childhood there was a Pepsi Ad featuring Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli & Mohammed Azharuddin. Since Cricket is my passion and Sachin my favorite Cricketer I remember drinking Pepsi simply because of that Advertisement. However, as I grew up I came to know that Pepsi is not that good for our health and I have stopped drinking it completely. The impact that advertisements created on my mind is a perfect example of Marketing & how can a target audience be enticed to buy a product through marketing on a TV.
So, Now let’s look a bit deeper into the concept of Marketing. Let’s first have a look as to what exactly is marketing.
According to the American Marketing Association, “Marketing is a set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients partners, and society at large” – American Marketing Association
Another short & crisp definition of marketing by Jon Jantsch (Of Duct Tape Marketing Fame) is “Marketing is getting someone who has a need to know, like & trust you”… Some can argue that this definition is a bit personal however, I mentioned it here as for me Marketing is more of building a personal connection & trust with your target customers.
After, knowing about what is Marketing through various definitions and examples now let’s go through some of the important laws of Marketing :
Laws of Marketing:
1) Marketing is less of creativity and more of a Science – May say that creativity is the main ingredient of marketing. However, I don’t agree with the same. It is true that one needs to be creative while Marketing the products but to know Marketing science is extremely crucial.
So let’s see how Marketing is based on science … Marketing starts before creating the product. Before creating something, it is extremely important to know your target audience & to know the needs & requirements of that audience. Once you create the product according to the needs and requirements of your audience then you don’t have to take much effort to sell your product. So you don’t need those creative ideas to sell your product. In most cases, the product will sell by itself if it is properly targeted to the audience who require the same. That is why Marketing is more of a Science & less creativity.
2) Building Relationship & Trust – Marketing is not simply selling your product to the Target Customer. It is also about building a healthy relationship & Trust with your customers so that they can remain your customers for life & will not fall for other similar competitive products. So it is important to develop Trust with the masses in other words develop a #MassTrust.
3) Marketing is a means to an end – The main purpose of marketing is to build a brand and to develop a position in the mind of the customers forever. Many brands that have become market leaders follow this ideology which has helped them to develop that long-term trust in the consumer minds.
4) The Law of Perception – Marketing is basically a game of perception. It is simply creating a positive perception of your product in the mind of the prospect. However, never try to make marketing more important than your product. Create the Best product and it sells by itself. If you market the product thinking that product is the champion of the marketing plan, you have got it all wrong
Marketing a product or service depends on how people perceive that product or service…
Example: In the United States when you think of Honda you may think of a high-quality reliable car manufacturer, however, in India, Honda is best known for its motorcycles, with car sales nowhere close to other brands. If quality was all that mattered, then Honda would have had the same position in all markets.
5) Word of Mouth Marketing, the best channel of marketing even today – No matter how technologically advanced we are, one of the best channels of marketing is the “Word of Mouth Marketing”. As per recent stats, even in this technological era 75 % of people don’t believe advertisements but believe in brand recommendations from friends, relatives, colleagues, and so on. Once you develop a high-quality product that suits the need of your target customers, those customers will then essentially do the marketing for your product.
6) Advertising, Sales & Copywriting are the components of Marketing – Many believe that Advertising and Marketing are the same but that is not the case. Even, I believed the same during my childhood and so I mentioned that “Pepsi TV Commercial” at the beginning of the Blog. Like Advertising Sales & Copywriting is also a component of Marketing.
Building a Strong Brand (Branding)
Another important aspect of Marketing is to build a strong brand. Decades ago Branding was just a name, logo, sign, or design. However, Today Building a strong brand is one of the essential criteria for the business. Building a brand helps you to stand apart from the crowd in today’s world. Branding is not only about being the No. 1 it is also about being the only one. So choose a category and try to be the numero uno in that category & create user loyalty. Bisleri, Xerox, Google are some of the examples of the brands that have been synonymous with their categories.
For Example: When we need mineral water to quench our thirst we usually ask for a Bottle of Bisleri and not mineral water. This is how Bisleri has developed its brand name into a verb.
However, if you cannot be a leader in a category try to be a leader in the sub-category.
For Example – Xiaomi or MI is the Number 1 Selling Phone in India as per the 2020 Quarter 1 Data. The reason being MI always Targets the middle and lower-middle-class population instead of focusing on the elite class which is very much loyal to iPhone (Apple) or Samsung Mobile Phones.
The Founder should be a Marketer
Understanding marketing is understanding business, so a founder of the company should have some marketing knowledge about the product he is going to sell to the customers. Marketing cannot be completely outsourced because Marketing begins before you create your product and continues even after you deliver the product to your customers. So the founder of the company who has created a product should ideally know about the marketing strategies for that particular product.
Good Communication Skills
Marketing consists of creating a product or service for potential customers and convincing them to buy that product or service. Marketing is basically developing trust and confidence in the user’s minds about a product or service so that they can buy the same. Good communication can go a long way in developing that trust and confidence in the user’s mind about a product or a service. Once you attach a customer emotionally to your brand with good communication you can build a long-term relationship with the customer.
Marketing and Global Economics
Every marketer should know about the basis of Global Economics. Also, it is important to know about the economic patterns of the country or location where you are going to market your products. Most of the marketing decisions are based on economics. It is also important to know about the Spending pattern, Government Policies about the region you are going to market your products.
For Example: If you are going to market a high-end product like a costly Mobile Phone or a Laptop it is extremely important to have knowledge about the spending capacity of the Region where you are going to market that product.
Understanding Traditional Vs Digital Marketing
In this Digital Era it is extremely vital to understand digital marketing vs traditional marketing aspect to know which marketing method is appropriate and how it should be applied. In the business, you should be always ahead of your competitors. So it is important not to depend on outdated marketing methods and understand the latest marketing techniques to grow your reach. Even though Digital Marketing is a buzzword today, the importance of Traditional Marketing methods like TV, Radio, News Papers, Magazines, Billboards cannot be underestimated. Traditional Marketing helps to target the large mass of audiences and therefore is still an effective medium today & can’t be completely ignored.
However, one of the major drawbacks of Traditional Marketing is that it is a very costly medium and there is very little or absolutely no personal interaction with the audience. Also, due to the latest developments in Technology more and more people especially youth don’t read newspapers, magazines and spend time watching Digital Content rather than Cable TV or Dish TV Content.
Under Digital Marketing, market-related work is done using the Internet or an electronic device like a Mobile Phone or a Laptop. Everything from Search Engine marketing to Facebook, Instagram marketing comes under Digital Marketing. The reason why Digital Marketing has become a vital aspect for business today is that the Internet is a tool used by a good chunk of the Population. So Digital Marketing lately has a slight edge over the traditional marketing mediums.
Another major advantage of Digital Marketing is that it allows personal interaction with consumers. Companies through Digital Marketing can connect directly with the customers and depending on the feedback can improve or upgrade the product. Also, Digital Marketing helps in developing trust and confidence among the customers about a particular product as they can interact with the Brand directly.
However, you cannot completely Ignore traditional marketing especially in a country like India where even today only 50% of the population makes use of the Internet. Also, certain products targeting lower-income groups or products targeting agriculture needs to use Traditional Marketing more than Digital Marketing even in the modern era of the Internet.
The CATT Marketing Funnel
Well, the formula in marketing sounds odd right. However, this formula mentioned below is a marketing funnel that helps you to build a mass trust of your audience by making use of Digital Marketing
Wealth = n^CATT
n = niche
C = Content
A = Attention
T = Trust
T = Transaction
Now lets see what it means :
Niche – In simple words in order to generate wealth you should choose a Niche that is profit-generating & will attract the audience.
Content – After you choose a Niche it is important to develop high-quality useful content like Blog Posts, Social Media Posts, Live Videos, YouTube Videos, Live Webinars which attracts your target audience.
Attention – Once the content is created, it is important to bring your audience towards the content. Organic traffic is helpful but difficult to get because the Internet is also a populated place. So you should spend some money in order to get attention. There are different methods that bring attention to your content like SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Social Media Marketing, Paid Ads, Referrals, and so on.
Trust – After generating a substantial amount of traffic towards your content using Paid Promotion methods it is important to build trust with your audience. Some of the effective methods for building trust are Repetitive engagements, Hooking the users by subscribing them to your Email Lists, YouTube Channels, Blogs, and so on. Another, important method of building Trust is “Deep Marketing” under which you develop communication with your audience which is extremely personalized and the audience feels that you are communicating with them directly on a regular basis.
Transaction – After you build trust in your customers it is important to insist those customers buy your products or service using natural sales methods. Natural Sales means that you already selected your Targeted Customer, develop trust in your brand, and as a result, the sale will happen naturally with that customer. At the same time, you should also persuade your customer to buy your products through different sales channels like Sales page, Webinars, Sales Video, Sales Calls, and so on.
Integrated Digital Marketing
Before getting to know about Integrated Digital Marketing, lets first have a look at what exactly is Integrated Marketing
“Integrated Marketing is a method of engaging consumers with your company or brand that combines all parts of Marketing communications to work together and assist the customer along their journey of awareness to loyalty and advocacy” – The Data & Marketing Association
Now let’s see what is Integrated Digital Marketing which in a way related to Integrated Marketing
Integrated Digital Marketing is basically an integration of Multiple Marketing Strategies to form a cohesive online approach for your business. The main idea behind Integrated Digital Marketing is that Marketing Strategies when used in conjunction can create a more influential online presence. Integrated Digital Marketing is basically, an engine that drives the CATT Marketing Funnel.
The Integrated Digital Marketing Framework is explained in form of an Image given below
Integrated Digital Marketing Framework entails
Content Marketing which is at the Centre & is boosted by Paid Advertising mediums like SEO & Social Media. This Paid Advertising mediums help to create a dedicated Email Marketing list. After developing Trust through regular personal Email Communication, the process of Sell & Conversion takes place.
The Power of Personal Branding
In this age of Social Media, most of us must be aware of the Personal Branding concept. Talking in Social Media Terms, Personal Branding is basically building a strong brand through the use of various online Promotional mediums. However, personal Branding is also an important concept in marketing. This is because Effective Personal Branding will differentiate you from the competition and will enable you to build trust with customers because people want to hear from people and not from brands. Also, personal branding can be deep and you can target your customers personally through personal branding.
“If you don’t actively build your personal brand, you don’t have any control over it. Other people will form their own beliefs about what you stand for and why you have created your business” #Kajabi
So if you have a personal brand you can control the narrative and show your audience what you want them to see about your business. A personal brand in a true sense becomes an influencer and a brand ambassador for the companies that they run. Another advantage of a personal brand is that it can give rise to many brands from his/her influence.
The Evolution of a Personal Brand :
Learn (A anew skill, practice for years)
Work (Put your new skills to work)
Blog ( Write about what you learn and your work experience, once you start writing online others will start recognizing you)
Consult – Once you have created your personal brand with a blog, have work experience, now start consulting other businesses
Mentor – Start Mentoring a group of people who admire you and want to be like you. Mentoring will take you to an entire different level.
Start-Up – Based on the understanding and experience you got through learning, working, consulting & mentoring you can now start your own product or service.
So building a personal brand will enable to build a #MassTrustBlueprint which is explained below in the form of a circle (which never ends)
Conclusion:
So this brings us to the end of this long article. Thanks for the patience you have shown if you have continued reading till this point. Looking at the various aspects of marketing mentioned above right from the Laws of Marketing, brand development, Understanding the difference between Traditional & Digital Marketing, getting to know about the CATT Marketing Funnel, Integrated Digital Marketing and the power of personal branding we can conclude that Marketing is an important part of your business and the success of marketing depends on the marketing strategies you apply in your business.
Marketing has been around for ages and will be there till the human race exists.
Image Courtesy
Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing – www.surgedigital.co.za
This article is a part of Digital Deepak Internship Batch 6 Assignment
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