Marketing goes far beyond advertising!
It is a common misconception that ‘marketing’ simply involves advertising and sales, being a term often thrown around. Its true meaning and scope are much, much more!
So, what is Marketing? At its core, marketing is about identifying and meeting the needs and wants of customers while achieving business goals. It is a planned and purposeful approach that involves creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers. This value can take many forms, such as products, services, information, or experiences. It is about interpreting consumer desires to match or exceed them, how to understand the competitive marketplace, to tap into trends, and how to reach consumers with the right product at the right price, place, and time.
Marketing is also about every aspect of the business to be customer focused. Marketing is about being close to your customers and satisfying their needs – and if you can’t then a competitor will. Marketing skills are about attracting and retaining customers and building sales with all the various activities aimed at satisfying customer needs profitably, building brand awareness, and driving business growth. For any business or organisation, understanding the broader concept of marketing and applying the marketers toolkit of the 7 P’s framework is critical for success.
Marketing is like having a Swiss Army knife for businesses – it’s versatile, handy, and comes with seven blades, all joining forces, and all finely tuned to play a critical role. These blades, known as the 7Ps, include Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and a Physical Evidence:
Product: whether offering a products or service they fulfil a specific need or want within their target market. This includes product design, features, quality, and packaging.
Price: is your price point – low, medium, or high? Pricing should align with the perceived value of the product or service. There are various ways to use pricing, such as ways to enter markets, remain competitive, or create that perceived value, where often marketing plays a key role.
Place: this is distribution, the way you are going to supply your customers cost effectively. How and where are your products or services made available to your customers. This might involve physical stores, online platforms, or both.
Promotion: while advertising is a part of promotion, it also includes activities like public relations, exhibitions, traditional and digital advertising, and social media. Marketers use a mix of these to reach their target audience cost effectively for desired results. Advertising therefore is a subcategory under the ‘Promotion’ marketing tool kit.
People: employees play a significant role in delivering a positive customer experience. Train and develop your teams to represent your brand well. A motivated and customer focused team are often highly productive in maintaining quality, promoting sales and in building strong long-term customer relationships. Marketing is not about that quick sale or ‘sales gimmick’ that the customer regrets, it is about giving exceptional customer experiences consistently to build mutual beneficial relationships, founded on reputation, trust, and offering good value.
Process: delivering products or services should be efficient and customer focused. This includes everything from ordering and payment processes to customer support and returns.
Physical Evidence: elements, such as the physical environment of a retail store or the design of a website, can influence customer perceptions. Businesses need to pay attention to these details to create a positive customer journey and brand image towards purchase, and then to follow this up with support after the purchase – that can provide opportunities to build stronger customer relationships.
So, ‘Marketing’ is more than advertising and sales! It is a customer focused approach to understanding your customers’ needs, preferences, and behaviours – why? Because without customers there is no business! This knowledge helps all businesses and organisations create products or services that genuinely satisfy their customers.
Effective marketing goes beyond immediate sales and focuses on building a strong brand. A well-established brand can lead to customer loyalty and increased sales in the long run, that among other methods in the marketing mix can provide a competitive advantage, not simply based on Price. In a competitive marketplace, marketing allows you to be different and unique from competitors through branding, and customer experience, it is about relationship building, customer engagement, addressing their concerns, and providing ongoing value.
Marketing therefore is much more than meets the eye, it is a dynamic diverse area with elements that extends far beyond advertising and sales. By embracing the 7P’s of marketing and understanding its whole organisational business approach, it can develop effective ways to not only drive sales but also build strong brand loyalty, foster customer relationships, and bring long-term success.
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