How Marketing Can Manifest Your Organizational Goal

 This article is about my understanding of marketing, which I learnt in week 2 of the Digital Deepak Internship Program.

Let me ask you a question. Do you agree with the following quote: “It's not the best product that wins, but the best-known one that wins”?

Whether you answered “yes” or “no”, I think you will agree that this question needs to be explored in greater depth. How does a product become successful? And consequently, how does a business grow?

Since the beginning of organized business, people have used marketing to reach out to potential customers. In the pre-industrial era, during the years 1750 to 1850, businesses mainly used word of mouth communication. After the industrial revolution, during years 1850 to 1920, when villages grew to larger populations, newspaper ads and magazine ads were used to reach the masses. In later years, advertisements were used in radio, television & billboards. Post year 2000, social media channels have been used, along with all the other existing channels.

So, we see that businesses have always required marketing to survive and thrive. Since it is such an important function, we will seek to understand what marketing is, and how it can be used best to reach business goals.

Understanding customer needs

As per recognized global data providers, it is observed that, in the last 5 years:

-         90% of new startups fail.

-         75% of venture-backed startups fail.

-         Under 50% of businesses make it to their 5th year.

-         33% of startups make it to the 10-year mark.

-         Only 40% of startups actually turn a profit.

-         82% of businesses that fail, do so because of cash flow problems.

-         The highest failure rate occurs in the information industry (63%).

What is the reason for this large failure rate? Obviously, there are multiple reasons for this, but the main reason is a lack of understanding of market requirements. Most startup founders seem to believe that the product they have developed, is the modern equivalent of the magic lamp of Aladdin. The question they don’t address is: who wants to buy my product?

The primary thing to be done is to understand customer requirements extremely well. In an ideal situation, the market should pull the product out of the business. In other words, businesses should have such a clear understanding of what the customer wants, that they end up creating a product that is a perfect fit for the customer. This marketing function is known as ‘Product – Market Fit’.

‘Apple’ company was the market leader in smartphones, when ‘Xiaomi’ wanted to enter the same market. Xiaomi observed that many customers were looking for cheaper smartphones, and would be quite satisfied if the phone had near equal features as Apple iPhone had. This led them to do the following:

-         Sold only through online channels, made spare parts locally, thereby reducing their marketing costs drastically

-         Communicated to their people, the production team, what customers were looking for. Produced smartphone which had almost all features that Apple iPhone had, but still was priced it at half the price

The result of the above actions was, within 3 years of launching their phones, Xiaomi became the third largest seller of smartphones in the world.

Creating Perception

The next function of marketing is to create the right perception of the product, in the minds of prospective customers. According to Forbes magazine, “fostering positive perceptions can help companies build a sustainable, loyal and growing customer base”. What this means is, if businesses succeed in creating the right perceptions, customers will come on their own to companies, instead of companies chasing customers.

Creating perceptions is all about establishing right communication, between companies and customers. Businesses have to communicate effectively, consistently and sincerely. This is not about exaggerating the benefits of the product. Rather, it is about broadcasting the value, which the company has to offer. Without this, customers will never come to know of something which could be of great value to them, and for which they would happily part with their money.

Creating Trust

The next function of marketing is to build trust, in the minds of customers, for the product. This is called brand building, which is really a matter of building trust.

Today, customers are very different from what they were a few decades ago. Today, we have the internet and other information channels. Customers can easily conduct research on a brand or product, before they make their purchase. Also, word of mouth marketing is still the best marketing. People trust the opinion of other people, who have used the product or service.

So, building trust or building a brand, comes down to four things:

-         Develop a product or service that truly provides value

-         Engage customers in a two-way communication

-         Host events

-         Be consistent in providing value

Traditional marketing vs Digital marketing

As we saw earlier, marketing has always been used by businesses. Traditional marketing includes methods like word of mouth, newspaper & magazine ads, radio & tv ads, and billboards. Digital marketing is marketing using websites, apps, social media channels, email and mobile marketing, to promote and sell goods & services.

Digital marketing has great advantages over traditional marketing, some of which are:

-         It is considerably less expensive

-         customers can be reached easily & effectively by using email marketing, mobile marketing & social media posts

-         It lets you communicate directly with the customers who see your content

Finding business niche

The next thing to understand in marketing is selection of ‘niche’. A business niche is a specialized or focused area of a broader market. Businesses can serve customers only when they differentiate themselves from the competition. It is not possible to serve the needs of every segment of the market.

Businesses should not enter a non-competitive market, even if they believe they have a great product for that market. If there is no demand, if customers are not expressing their interest in a particular market segment, it does not make good business sense to create a product / service in that segment. What would be good business sense, however, is to enter a competitive market, but have a unique selling point (USP) in that market. The formula for wealth creation can be summarized as below:

Wealth = Niche ^ CATT

In other words, the amount of wealth that a business can generate, is equal to the strength of its niche, times CATT, which is an acronym that stands for:

C = Create relevant Content for your market segment

A = Drive Attention or traffic to company website, using SEO (search engine optimization) methods, paid ads, social media, and referrals.

T = Build Trust with customers and leads. Regularly send communications to them, that are very personalized & to the point.

T = Get Transaction done, convert leads to customers. Use natural sales methods. Also have sales webinars, sales pages and make customer calls.

The CATT is implemented successfully, when all components of digital marketing is integrated & worked together. Rich and meaningful content is first created in company website, so that website gains high rank. Paid ads are used to drive traffic to website. Further, the content is shared in social media posts to drive more traffic to website. Finally, email list of prospects and leads is procured from this traffic. Next, email marketing is used to promote goods & services to the website visitors. Hence, we see that every component works together to produce the desired result.

Personal Branding

Marketing of goods & services can also be done by developing personal brand of the business owner. The business can brand it’s products by using the name & identity of it’s owner. This is called personal branding.

Personal branding is the conscious effort to create public perception of an individual, by positioning him or her as an authority in their industry. Whatever the owner does, it will build his personal brand.

Quite often, personal branding is more effective than business branding. An example of this is, Elon Musk has a bigger following than his companies SpaceX and Tesla. People want to hear from people. An individual sharing his content strikes a better chord with readers, than a business logo sharing its content. A person can speak to his followers on a personal level more effectively than a company can.

Even a person who is entering the market, can create his or her own personal brand. He has to learn a new skill, and practice the procedures related to that skill. He can take up a job or freelance assignments, in order to gain real time experience. He can share his knowledge and experience in his blog.

The more he writes, the more people come to know about him, and trust his abilities. People will approach him with their business requirements. He can provide consulting services to them, for which he can charge fees. Once he has gained sufficient knowledge, he can teach the same to other people, who want to become digital marketers. He can also open an agency or startup company, mentor his employees and continue to build his personal brand in his special niche.

 

 

This is called mass trust building, and its steps are shown pictorially below:

Summary

In conclusion, we can say the following about marketing:

-         It is about understanding customer requirements deeply

-         It is about building trust, by providing genuine value

-         It is about creating the right perception about our product

-         Both traditional marketing & digital marketing have to be used

-         It is about finding a unique niche in the market

-         It is about building brand, both personal and business

Marketing is not just about selling. It is about keeping customers happy, by adding value in their lives. It is about nourishing the relationship with customers after sales has taken place, and continually provide great customer service.

As the old quotation goes, “Customer Service is not a department, it’s an Attitude.” And for any organization’s growth, it’s Attitude determines it’s Altitude.

 

Note:

For more insights into the benefits of digital marketing, please read below blog:

https://mohithdigi.online/digital-marketing-tactics-to-your-business-grow/