Note to a Non-Marketing Business Person

“Note to a non-Marketing Business Person”

Why is Marketing Important?

Today, Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are flourishing in the organogram of companies and the business press is now full of marketing approaches and other marketing related articles.  

The reason for that trend is that good management, finance and accounting, are pointless if nobody buys the products. According to Kotler and Keller (2011) marketing, has been the Achilles' heel of many formerly prosperous companies and even market leaders such as Intel or Microsoft, recognize that they cannot afford to let their guard down.

What is Marketing?

People generally have a limited view of what is marketing. The common view is that marketing is the art of selling products but actually, selling is only the tip of the marketing iceberg (ibid). According to Peter Drucker (1993):

“…The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

Marketing is all about recognising and satisfying the needs of the society. For example, when IKEA realized that people wanted quality furniture at an affordable price, it created furniture in kit form (Kotler & Keller, 2011). A brief definition which is regularly reused for marketing is: "meeting needs profitably."(Philip Kotler).

What is Marketing in Practice?

A marketer has really large action range, going from the designing, to the financing and pricing, to the advertising. In practice, a good CMO will follow a three-step process known as Marketing Management Process. (I) Planning marketing activities, (II) Directing the implementation of the plans, and (III) Controlling these plans.

[pic 1](Perreault, McCarthy 2002)

I. The marketing Plan

A marketing plan is a written statement that makes clear what are the objectives, what resources will be needed, what market will be targeted, what marketing mix will be used, and for how long (Perreault, McCarthy 2002).

1. The Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy is a big picture of what a company is going to do. And for that two interrelated aspects are required: (a) a Target Market and (b) a Marketing Mix.

1. Target Market

First, whether you sell computers or clothes, if you want to maximise your sales you need to know your customers. You have to answers questions such as, who are you selling to? why should they buy your product? and so on. The marketing strategy must specify some targeted consumers, for example the men and women between 18-24 years old (Perreault, McCarthy 2002). The reason behind that is simple, it is almost impossible to satisfy the needs of everybody. And It is much more effective to focus your effort on specific groups of similar people (ibid).

1. Marketing Mix

You have defined your targeted customers, now you have to find how to satisfy their needs.

There are various approaches to meet the needs of you targeted customers. For example, it can be done through the particular characteristics of your product, through the pricing, through the level of customer services offered, through the advertising (ibid). To sum up it is often said that you need to put the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time. This is known as the four Ps: Product, Place, Promotion, Price.