What is Marketing? A Complete Look

“Our job as marketers is to understand how the customer wants to buy and help them do so.” – Bryan Eisenberg

If only the true definition of marketing could also be summarized as elegantly…

Marketing is a topic with a very broad scope. It is a bid to win the buyers’ attention. It is a principle of management. It is many different things in myriad contexts.

And no one can deny that it is the mainstay of the 21^st century experience based economy.

So in this blog post, let’s do the impossible. Let’s try to dive into the rabbit hole of marketing and answer questions about its benefits, traditional marketing and the fundamentals of its modern avatar.

And if I fall short, hey…it will still be an entertaining read.

What is Marketing?

Before launching into a definition, let me clarify that when I refer to marketing in this article, I do not mean to talk about an alternative meaning of marketing that revolves around “shopping” for goods and services.

We will stay strictly within the confines of branding and promotions.

Marketing is a body of processes, concepts and practices through which communication is established between a company and its prospective clients. This is done to:

• Inform the prospects of new products and services that might alleviate their pains and solve their problems.

• Present the unique benefits offered by the goods in an interesting, creative and noteworthy way.

• Secure mind-share or brand recall wherein prospects immediately associate objects or references in their daily lives with the brand. Think about milk and it is likely that Oreo cookies with their yummy fillings flash on your mental screen.

• Augment the “value” of a brand. Apple is deemed one of the best companies in the world simply because its marketing strategy has successfully attributed the sentiments of luxury, exclusivity and an amazing user experience to it.

• Directly influence decision-making and sway choices for increased sales and revenue.

Even a few decades ago marketing was just one part of the purchase equation. It was used to create demand, which led to questions about the product and then a negotiation with sales.

But fast forward to 2017 and beyond and the scenario has changed completely.

Right now buyers are likely to be 70% of the way towards a decision when they get in touch with the sales department of a company. And if the item in question is a product that can be directly bought from a store, the customer never visits the brand website. He (or she) gets his inputs from reviews of friends.

So marketing has had to evolve.

It has had to become multi-pronged.

On one hand it stimulates the wish to possess a product or experience a service.

On the other it has to provide ample unbiased information to inform the decision making process.

And on yet another front (I am running short of hands now) it has to build a positive consensus in the market about its parent company so that recommendations and referrals from influencers can also play a role in nudging buyers towards the sale. It truly is one discipline to rule them all!

Benefits of Marketing:

This is more of a cursory look at all the advantages that marketing has to offer. Since the benefits are largely apparent, we will also talk about pitfalls that should be avoided to secure the competitive edge in each case.

Marketing Increases Brand Visibility

Marketing of today works both online and offline.

In the online setting the biggest power that a company has is in its content. People are always looking for information. Be it a doctoral thesis or a movie review, they are tapping questions into Google and consuming the answers.

Through marketing strategies like joint ventures, paid advertisements and influencer promotions, a company can leave its mark everywhere. It can incentivize celebrities to post social updates about a brand, it can launch guest blogging campaigns to win authority backlinks and it can upload visual content like videos and infographics to various distribution platforms and show up everywhere.

In the offline setting, marketing can take more innovative forms like Guerrilla marketing stunts, placement of brand name and logo on city and state landmarks and billboards to keep reminding prospects of a business’s presence.

Pitfall: Marketing today has to be “native”. It has to blend well with its surroundings and make sense. If it is distracting or out of context, audiences are more than likely to tune it out.

Marketing Helps Customers Make a Purchase Decision

And it does so by offering “no strings attached” value. Through mass marketing brochures and informational leaflets are distributed.

Creating documentaries is another engaging way in which critical information to turn buyers problem or solution aware through the medium of movies is also effective. Spent by American Express is a pertinent example.

Pitfall: Some brands may not be able to convey a sense of genuineness and authenticity through the content they create. When this happens – either through aggressive in-content sales pitches or obvious realization of interests – a company in fact stands to lose customers.

Marketing Builds Trust, Loyalty and Relationships

The often ignored strategy of community marketing is one way in which prospects are made to feel exclusive or privileged and then nurtured with rewards, information and often significant perks to seal the purchase decision.

Community marketing creates die-hard fans and evangelists who not only bring in referrals but also bail a business out if it falls on tough times.

The best example of such a community is the HOG – The Harley Owners Group. Harley Davidsons are a lot more than a macho bike. They stand for a way of life. The impassioned Harley community meets online and offline organizes events that celebrate the “Harley Spirit” and takes itself and its right of self-expression seriously.

These buyers can’t dream of defecting. Generations of riders go from one Harley to the next. This is the power of marketing.

Pitfall: Well…take a look yourself. Since communities comprise of aware individuals with emotions who are often active on social media, brands must carefully evaluate their actions and campaigns before going live.

5 Startling Marketing Statistics:

You may think you know all about marketing. But these statistics will change the way you perceive the state of marketing and how brands are leveraging it.

• Desktop conversion rates are almost double those of hand held smart devices. Don’t get caught up in the hype that desktop is dead. Apparently customers are researching on their iPhones and tablets and then heading to their good, old desktops to buy! (*Smart Insights)

• Direct marketing has a ROI ratio of 13:1. Yes emails are great and convenient. But wouldn’t you rather see a lumpy envelope in the mail? Because of their relative rarity, direct mailers are more successful in getting a brand or an offer registered. (*DMR Stats)

• Christmas is actually in August! It is likely that by the time August rolls around majority of the buyers have created a budget and also selected possible gift options for their near and dear ones. So June-July is the ideal time to run your promotional campaigns. (*Mogo Interactive)

• Google Adwords are worth the buck. Because 36% of searchers take these ads as organic results. And end up clicking on them. Wicked! (*Mogo Interactive)

• Only 28% of US based SMBs have an online presence. This means two things. One, now is a great time to join the cyber marketplace because the competition is still oblivious. Two, a couple of years down the line the economy will be more saturated than ever before. (*Smart Focus)

What Was Traditional Marketing Like?

It was often quirky. Often tired and stereotypical! The defining characteristic of traditional marketing was the practice of casting as wide a net as possible. Marketers did try and understand the preferences of their ideal buyers.

But this was a secondary consideration.

The primary impetus was to secure slots on television, capsules on radio programs or ads in newspapers to grab eyeballs.

Then the direct response marketing strategies were introduced wherein more specific and personalized messages were delivered to those who were the most likely to buy. This was a hit and miss kind of operation because demographic data was not as accurate as it is today.

The supposition was the direct mailers would further educate prospects who were already primed by the mass marketing messages.

Finally the sales department would step in with cold calls and reel in the possible customers.

As you can see the scope of collaboration between marketing and sales was limited.

And for a while this approach worked.

But then “discernment” started putting in an appearance. The internet opened up the power of free information. Suddenly people were being bombarded by too many ads and were starting to tune them out.

In the absence of priming and thanks to the new trend of independent decision journeys, cold calls froze over before they could be initiated.

The new paradigm of marketing in the digital age was born.

Welcome to Digital Marketing!

Digital marketing is an umbrella term that covers many virtual channels and techniques to persuade people to purchase. It is different from traditional marketing because:

• It is more affordable
• It can be easily measured and tweaked
• It is more targeted
• It is more agile and adaptable

PPCs: The Vanguards of the Digital Age

The first pay per click ad advertised live lobsters. And this was way back in 2000. Since then the PPC rage has peaked and subsided only to rear its head again. Like anything novel, when pay per click made an appearance marketers were thrilled. They sunk a lot of money in the channel and got returns. For a while!

But then spammy practices, poor landing pages and lack of quality content saw a steady decline in conversions through PPC. Prospects were clicking but they weren’t buying. And sometimes even snarky competitors would launch click campaigns on the adverts – just to see a brand lose money.

After quite a bit of back and forth though, PPC is recovering. There are now stringent guidelines in place for ad approvals. And people are having a better purchase experience post the click.

Right now the ROI of PPC ads is in the positive and expected to improve. Fingers crossed!

Email Marketing: Forging Connections

Reportedly the ROI of email marketing is a whopping 3800%. It has increased from around $12 a few years ago to $38 for every dollar spent. This is extremely encouraging.

Think of email marketing as the digital counterpart of the direct mailer. But with all the bells and whistles!

Email Marketing:

• Delivers messages direct to the inbox where the clutter is relatively less and thus with the right email subject line offers a high possibility of an open.

• Can send emails based on prospect preferences and actions. These are known as email automations or flows. There is no better way to send the right message at the right time.

Even if all other digital marketing channels become outdated, email will still be relevant.

Social Marketing: Leveraging Communities

We have already discussed the importance of community based marketing. Social media platforms like Facebook make it easy to set-up a presence, invite clients and fans and engage with them through text content, visual media and even live chats.

The best thing about social media marketing is the fact that buyers get to experience the brand “personality” first hand. They can put somewhat of a face to the name.

Social media is wonderful. But it may not be a sustainable marketing channel. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are also about people and what they want. Businesses come in second. This is the reason why the rules change so frequently and they never favor companies.

With the noise rising in social feeds and marketers getting distracted by vanity metrics like likes and shares, it is time to focus on the real pay-off of revenue generated to take a call on the effectiveness of social media marketing.

 So how did I do? Was your question about marketing answered? What do you think I could add to make this piece more authoritative? Let me know in the comments.