Unless you find a more profitable way(s) to pass your marketing message across to your chosen market segment, your business or product-service would suffer for it. People are getting busier these days and don’t really have the time and patient to look at every product-service. They only create few rooms in their already flooded brains for just a few of them, wherever and whenever necessary. At times, I will be shock to hear that a particular product-service (I may need) has been around for ages. And I will ask myself, where I have been. Did you get the point I am making here? Marketers should do away with assumption, and apply what works to targeting its main buyers!
Hence, it behoves on organisations to adopt a marketing means that they can effectually manage, control and influence. The same marketing technique should equally give you utmost profit(s) for the effort. Never be lured into adopting a marketing method because others are doing it. More like me-too-marketing-approach. There’s no wisdom in doing so much and getting so little. Asking the right question before diving into the market would do an organisation so much good. Who actually are your prospective buyers? Where are they? Then formulate the right way to hit them with your well-aimed marketing messages.
There is the necessity for new approach of marketing thinking. Let’s call it contextual marketing or better still, situational marketing. It’s just a matter of time we would start measuring our ever-increasing marketing budgets with critical eye to evaluate its return on investment. That should be the bottom-line of any approach you may adopt to go about your marketing business. Nobody wants to run a business at a lost, not even Bill Gates or Warren Buffet.
Sergio Zyman, former marketing officer, coca-cola once taught, ‘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.’ But how many of us have got it, and are effectively using it? Firstly, you’ve got to know who your customers are and where they are, and then device a procedure to give them a superior service than the competition.
The essence of marketing is to have your product-service get to the end-user effortlessly, and also leave you with something profitable at the end of the deal. To achieve this, it’s necessary that one breaks out of the marketing clutter and then fashion a strong system to move most consumers to action. This might require your doing a little home work to know the system that is most appropriate for your kind of business. ‘The purpose of researching your market is to find out the subtler truths. Marketing research can help you spot opportunities and problems’. That is how Sarah White and John Woods wisely put it in one of their books. It’s very sad that nearly all of us are still engaged in what I would refer to as blind-marketing, even when it doesn’t pay us that much.
I want us to briefly assess some of the ways you can market your product-services and the advantages and limitations of each process. And whether that particular method was superlative for what you want to achieve in the market arena.
By word-of-mouth
Someone once asked this question to a group of individuals: ‘When forming an opinion of a company product-service, how credible would the information be from a staff of the company? What about the opinion of your friends and peers?’ It was so revealing that sixty-one percent trust and value the judgement of other people (like themselves) than those from the company or their representatives. This is very natural for most of us; we value thoughts and opinions of friends than those of strangers.
A survey by Edelman Trust Barometer in 2006 disclosed that word-of-mouth is seven-times more effective than newspaper advertising, five-times stronger than a personal sales pitch, and two-times as effective as radio advertising. And thirty-six percent of surveyed consumers reported learning of an innovation through word-of-mouth, while fourty-eight percent reported being influenced by word-of-mouth when making a purchase decision. (Some other statistical figures are even higher). Did you see that?
People trust peolpe, and by that I mean friends trust friends more than marketers, who are paid by their respective companies to serve as advocates to their various product-services. Inspite of everything, scores of business executives tend to over-rely on mass media advertising and under-rely on the reputational campaigns like word-of-mouth. Oftentimes, if people want to buy certain product, they first get the counsel of respected friends, neighbours or colleagues, who they think should have a better idea about the product-service. We still believe them even when they have little or no knowledge of what they are talking about. In fact, it has happened to me on numerous occasions.
Word-of-mouth is one of the finest forms of marketing, particularly if you know how to create a buzz using it (to boost the sale of your product-service). This is governed by the 90/10 rule: ninety percent of the world is influenced by the other ten percent. Or better still, Vilfredo Pareto’s 80/20 rule can’t be truer elsewhere than here. You get eighty percent of your business from twenty percent of you customers. I am saying this experientially. Think of the first time you visited a particular business outfit that was novel to, what largely brought you there was the testimony of a person (possibly friend or colleague), who may have had an experience with that particular product-service.
Another good thing about this mode of marketing is that it has the tendency of creating a ripple-effect. And often times, buyers here don’t come to make inquires (or do window-shopping) but to buy, or rather have an experience like their friends with your given market offering.
Obviously, the most successful product-services (or businesses) are those that spread and grow because of the customers’ relationship to other customers and prospective customers, and not because of the markets to the buyers. At the centre of every thriving business are the voices of customers, which resound louder than those of the sellers! A great mind summarised it thus: ‘The future belongs to marketers who establish a foundation and process where interested people cam market to each other...Ignite consumers networks and then get out of the way and let them talk’.
Nevertheless, it’s not every product-service that could be effectively dispersed by word-of-mouth alone but no establishment, no matter how big or small can do without it. This type of marketing has a way of giving credibility and enhance acceptance by the general public, no matter your business.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Situational Marketing (1)
Without any doubt, the business of marketing forms the bed-rock of any budding establishment. You will agree with me that every business rises and falls on its position and reputation in the marketplace. I have closely observed how a number of companies (and individuals) make frantic efforts to sell their product-services in the marketplace, and they use several procedures to achieve this purpose. While some succeed, some others don’t. And I’d wonder how we can better approach this marketing business and make it a little bit easier, and also create a win-win proposition for all the parties involved in the matter.
We wouldn’t neglect the fact that there shouldn’t be one way of marketing a given product-service. It’s perceived that the more of them you have and, the better for you and your product-service, and the better you might possibly edge-out the competition. After all, different buyers have peculiar things that motivate them to buy, and you may not know the one that would work.
However, there should be a company’s primary channel of marketing its offerings to its target market for maximum returns. It’s not every enterprise that may have the resources to integrate all the known marketing mix (wherever it’s necessary). It’s on this ground that I am compelled to put down this piece of work, and it’s based on some of my market and marketing experiences.
Let me begin by asking us this question: what do you consider as the best form of marketing? I’m sure that there would be several answers as there are diverse marketing situations. The hyper-competition in the market arena is not helping issues either; every business outfit wants to dominate the market. This has made countless companies and individuals to be under pressure, spending so much money to get their product-services across to the presumed-buyers. Sadly as it may appear, many of these wonderful product-services barely reach the ultimate end-users quite effectively.
It also gives me much concern whenever I see establishments spend millions in marketing campaigns – in advert, radio jingles, TV commercials, bill-boards, and what have you. And I’d question if they do recover from some of these crazy ,and somewhat extravagant expenses. Well some of them could be justifiable but my reservation is, how much do they get in return after all, since some of them don’t rationalise the investment made. In business, it’s not how much you spend but how much you make.
Research has it that more money is practically wasted in marketing than in any other human activity (outside government). That’s crazily amazing! If companies have discovered better ways of reaching their target market, they’d spend pretty less, rather than do what look more like trial and error.
Obviously, some of what certain organisations do is more or less counter-productive, and occasionally may fail to appeal to those at the receiving end. For instance, some companies spend millions of naira to interrupt people with ads they don’t want and with product-services that they don’t need. Or another that mounts bill-boards across the streets that passers-by are blind to. Quite a number of these things rarely work nowadays. Remember, you are not the only one bombarding the buyers’ brains, in the name of marketing!
Nevertheless, writing off all marketing expenditures because most of the time they don’t work isn’t the right answer, either. There must be a way out of this marketing-maze. I sampled the opinions of buyers of some of the things being marketed through several means before coming up with this article. So, I’d be taking it from the consumers’ point of view, and I think every good business or marketing executive should take this very seriously in developing their subsequent marketing plans. In the market place, it’s not what you think that matters but what the people think and do about what you are giving to them. That is why someone warned, ‘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.’
In my own opinion, unless organisations find a more cost-effective way to get their product-services to their primary consumers, their businesses are certainly endangered. Marketing must be contextual for it to deliver the desired result. I see it as a whole work of art and science, (except that one wants to trail behind in the marketplace).
The buyers of these product-services are getting busier each passing day. They barely have time for any product-service, especially new ones, and so give small room in their over-crowded-media-hyped brains for few (known product-services). Therefore, anyone who must grab an appreciable market-shared must adopt a strategic means to register their presence in the business arena. (It’s difficult to sell to a man who isn’t interested to either look or listen).
Marketing, indeed, is abroad discipline, and its environment is so dynamic that anything can happen. And each day provides us with what works, and what does not work. It now makes sense to me when Dina El Tabey, a marketing guru remarked that, ‘Marketing is about continually trying new ideas and refining ideas’.
You can’t do today what created marketing buzz yesterday, because there’s no way that’s going to create more buzz today. Peter F. Drucker suggested that, ‘Crises in organisations occur because the assumptions on which the organisation has been built and is being run no longer fit reality; an organisation’s survival lies in its ability to learn and adapt quickly. Plans must be altered at the very time they are implemented’. I think this is mostly true in our present marketing circumstance.
On a more practical note, my team developed a marketing strategy for certain business establishment some time ago. Initially, they were scares at our approach, which was unconventional (but it’s the approach that suit the occasion). Nonetheless, at the end the outfit were so amazed at the result. Interestingly, they saved good money! What’s my point? The game of marketing must fit the present realities for it to deliver what you want. People might doubt the process but not the result.
A man said, ‘Marketing changes its focus from equilibrium management (why and how markets settle own) to disequilibrium management (why and how markets are constantly changing through the development of competitive products and production processes)’. Every business day opens us up to other sides of marketing or the market that we possibly may not have thought of before now. I am sure you will agree with that. So, let you action show your conviction.
There are several marketing approaches. And each marketing communication has got its advantages as well as slight disadvantage, or better still limitations. Not every product-service would, or rather should be marketed by advert or radio/ TV commercials. Neither is it wisdom to market some others solely by word-of-mouth, bill-boards or even online. What is most important is whether your method is suitable for the current market situation, and also if it is actually reaching your intended market. How do we determine the one that works? That is, the one reaches our target buyers. We would try to look at that in the next issue.
Tony Ajah is a highly consulted business growth strategist, and the Principal Strategist, TA Strategic Solutions, a Lagos-based firm that is into business growth and development. tony@ta-strategies.com ajahxt@yahoo.co.uk 01 958 7802
We wouldn’t neglect the fact that there shouldn’t be one way of marketing a given product-service. It’s perceived that the more of them you have and, the better for you and your product-service, and the better you might possibly edge-out the competition. After all, different buyers have peculiar things that motivate them to buy, and you may not know the one that would work.
However, there should be a company’s primary channel of marketing its offerings to its target market for maximum returns. It’s not every enterprise that may have the resources to integrate all the known marketing mix (wherever it’s necessary). It’s on this ground that I am compelled to put down this piece of work, and it’s based on some of my market and marketing experiences.
Let me begin by asking us this question: what do you consider as the best form of marketing? I’m sure that there would be several answers as there are diverse marketing situations. The hyper-competition in the market arena is not helping issues either; every business outfit wants to dominate the market. This has made countless companies and individuals to be under pressure, spending so much money to get their product-services across to the presumed-buyers. Sadly as it may appear, many of these wonderful product-services barely reach the ultimate end-users quite effectively.
It also gives me much concern whenever I see establishments spend millions in marketing campaigns – in advert, radio jingles, TV commercials, bill-boards, and what have you. And I’d question if they do recover from some of these crazy ,and somewhat extravagant expenses. Well some of them could be justifiable but my reservation is, how much do they get in return after all, since some of them don’t rationalise the investment made. In business, it’s not how much you spend but how much you make.
Research has it that more money is practically wasted in marketing than in any other human activity (outside government). That’s crazily amazing! If companies have discovered better ways of reaching their target market, they’d spend pretty less, rather than do what look more like trial and error.
Obviously, some of what certain organisations do is more or less counter-productive, and occasionally may fail to appeal to those at the receiving end. For instance, some companies spend millions of naira to interrupt people with ads they don’t want and with product-services that they don’t need. Or another that mounts bill-boards across the streets that passers-by are blind to. Quite a number of these things rarely work nowadays. Remember, you are not the only one bombarding the buyers’ brains, in the name of marketing!
Nevertheless, writing off all marketing expenditures because most of the time they don’t work isn’t the right answer, either. There must be a way out of this marketing-maze. I sampled the opinions of buyers of some of the things being marketed through several means before coming up with this article. So, I’d be taking it from the consumers’ point of view, and I think every good business or marketing executive should take this very seriously in developing their subsequent marketing plans. In the market place, it’s not what you think that matters but what the people think and do about what you are giving to them. That is why someone warned, ‘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.’
In my own opinion, unless organisations find a more cost-effective way to get their product-services to their primary consumers, their businesses are certainly endangered. Marketing must be contextual for it to deliver the desired result. I see it as a whole work of art and science, (except that one wants to trail behind in the marketplace).
The buyers of these product-services are getting busier each passing day. They barely have time for any product-service, especially new ones, and so give small room in their over-crowded-media-hyped brains for few (known product-services). Therefore, anyone who must grab an appreciable market-shared must adopt a strategic means to register their presence in the business arena. (It’s difficult to sell to a man who isn’t interested to either look or listen).
Marketing, indeed, is abroad discipline, and its environment is so dynamic that anything can happen. And each day provides us with what works, and what does not work. It now makes sense to me when Dina El Tabey, a marketing guru remarked that, ‘Marketing is about continually trying new ideas and refining ideas’.
You can’t do today what created marketing buzz yesterday, because there’s no way that’s going to create more buzz today. Peter F. Drucker suggested that, ‘Crises in organisations occur because the assumptions on which the organisation has been built and is being run no longer fit reality; an organisation’s survival lies in its ability to learn and adapt quickly. Plans must be altered at the very time they are implemented’. I think this is mostly true in our present marketing circumstance.
On a more practical note, my team developed a marketing strategy for certain business establishment some time ago. Initially, they were scares at our approach, which was unconventional (but it’s the approach that suit the occasion). Nonetheless, at the end the outfit were so amazed at the result. Interestingly, they saved good money! What’s my point? The game of marketing must fit the present realities for it to deliver what you want. People might doubt the process but not the result.
A man said, ‘Marketing changes its focus from equilibrium management (why and how markets settle own) to disequilibrium management (why and how markets are constantly changing through the development of competitive products and production processes)’. Every business day opens us up to other sides of marketing or the market that we possibly may not have thought of before now. I am sure you will agree with that. So, let you action show your conviction.
There are several marketing approaches. And each marketing communication has got its advantages as well as slight disadvantage, or better still limitations. Not every product-service would, or rather should be marketed by advert or radio/ TV commercials. Neither is it wisdom to market some others solely by word-of-mouth, bill-boards or even online. What is most important is whether your method is suitable for the current market situation, and also if it is actually reaching your intended market. How do we determine the one that works? That is, the one reaches our target buyers. We would try to look at that in the next issue.
Tony Ajah is a highly consulted business growth strategist, and the Principal Strategist, TA Strategic Solutions, a Lagos-based firm that is into business growth and development. tony@ta-strategies.com ajahxt@yahoo.co.uk 01 958 7802
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