The Business of Marketing

The Business of Marketing
Every business is marketing, and marketing is a serious business. No business exists without marketing – it being the critical area of your enterprise. The success and failure of any business is entirely down to how the business is marketed; the sure business maker and breaker. There is no business except one buys or sells something. And none of those things will happen without marketing. No matter the model of your ‘product-service’, you are in the business of marketing.
I discovered that the number one business challenge is marketing. Research has it that more money is ‘wasted’ in marketing than in any other human activity (outside government). Think about it. Businesses all over the world struggle because they simply haven’t found ways to generate constant streams of customers and keep them buying time after time. That may be the reason why Peter F. Drucker once said, ‘Marketing is so basic that it cannot be considered a separate function. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from customer’s point of view.’
Every business is the same. They need a steady supply of clients, and once they’ve got them, they need to keep them. You business is there to meet a need, and a need is no but a market. Marketing, indeed, is abroad discipline. Sometimes, it’s scarcely known to some of us, including those who claim to be experts. (We might not go in to that now).
One significant thing that counts in marketing is the customers’ perception of your ‘product-service’. Your duty as a good marketer is to create the right perception. Marketing is a game of mental warfare; a battle of perception, and not of product or service. The rule of this game is manipulating those perceptions so as to appear as the best and also the most preferred. There are no best products, not even one. All that exist in the world are perceptions in the mind of the customer or prospect. Come to think of it, the only realities you and I can be sure of are those of our perceptions. (The observer’s perception is his reality). What choices of car do you drive? What brand of toothpaste do you use? It’s all in your perception. Quality is nothing but personal-power we transfer or confer on a given brand product.
Perception is a mind-game. Today, what wins in the market is not just the ‘market-share’ but ‘mind-share’. You can’t win the market battle if you’ve not won the mind battle.
All ‘product-services’ that are hitting it big in the marketplace are persuasive. And persuasion comes from altering of perception. Businesses are nothing but what people perceive it to be in the eyes of the market. Here, every appearance is reality. Never joke with it. An establishment cannot claim to be what it thinks it is, but what people think it is. After all, your business is not there for you except for the people you serve – the market.
The better the customer is understood, the better you are able to fulfill the customers’ needs, and also win his or her approval. Always have it in mind that you are in the business to determine the primary target market’s wants and needs better than your competition, and deliver it to them.
Perception does not work in isolation. Quoting Sergio Zyman, ‘Marketing is comprised of everything a company does from how its product is packaged, to how it is positioned in the eyes of the consumer through ad and promotion. All these things define the benefit to the user.’ We would look at those things that would help put your business in the heart of the market. In my own term, marketing is anything that you do to attract and keep customers. Here are two of them.
Simple Marketing Intelligence
Positioning: By positioning, you create an image in the minds of the target market, establishing the desired perception for your ‘product-service’ relative to others. Writing on the subject, Al Ries and Jack Trout in their book, Psychological Positioning said, ‘Positioning is not what you do to a product; it’s what you do to the mind of the prospect.’ That is quite indisputable.
Knowing whom you are marketing to, and the character of the person is a huge plus in the business of marketing. You aim and fire with a precipitating positive effect.
Strategic Visibility: Market visibility is everything. When people see you often, they perceive you as superlative. Constancy of appearance is suggestive. If you are in doubt, ask Coca- Cola who spend millions of dollars annually to remain as the most visible beverage drink. Visibility builds credibility and increases ‘preferability’ and profitability. Your business abilities and potentials are not as important as your visibility.
It’s what people see that they feel, think, believe, support and profess. Great businesses make news. Are your business ideas strong enough, take them to the media. Adopt every method possible to be heard and seen. Announce yourself until the market starts announcing you. Above all, be very strategic about it.
The ultimate purpose of positioning and visibility is to engender adequate attention in the marketplace. Attention is what everyone and business live for. I know you need attention as much as I do, whether as a person or in your business. Attention is money; big money. What businesses are competing for is attention. And those who know how to generate enough of it smile to the bank.
When it comes to business, if you don’t toot your horn, you lose in the market. When you win in the market, you win in business. ‘Competing in the market place’, John Collins taught, ‘is like war. You have injuries and casualties and the best strategy wins’. With this fresh insight, make effort to blast into the mind of the market and watch the result. Of a truth, business has just begun.
Tony Ajah is a Business Development Expert whose ideas have helped businesses in Nigeria. He is also the Creative Director of Smartspeakers Resources, a Lagos based firm that specializes in Soft Skill Development.
www.smartspeakersng.org tony@smartspeakersng.org ajahxt@yahoo.co.uk +234 805 140 3056