Why Marketing?
Marketing consists in a group of actions which denotes, to the target group, how much someone is pasioned for him. This group of actions should be practiced up to the point that this target group starts corresponding favorably to the level of efforts applied to get such feedback, because, if the effort level will charge the company’s life, it should be better to look for a new lover.
Marketing actions, if well done, can guarantee a way to demonstrate how important is the target group to the promoter of this actions. But, why someone should promote such kind of actions? To conquest the favorite post, to be elected as the partner number one, to be the sole supplier, the single sourcing!
As similar as someone who fell in love for a princess, marketing requires affection, courtesy, attention to details, care, politeness, patience, respect, reliability, trust, honesty, fidelity, ethics, commitment, proactivity, surprise, celerity, gifts, gratitude, remembrance, in other words, everything with a pretty princess could expect from a prince who desires to get the princess love, I mean, all the necessary efforts to conquest the heart of the Sleeping Beauty Princess!
Someone who became tired, just for hearing what he should do, to get the Princess love, is not prepared to become a marketing legend. If under first analyses all these exigences, could means too much effort, on the other hand, who thinks like that, never will taste the lips of the most beautiful girl of the world (the best customers)!
Except the masochists, people like to be welcome, to be well treated and, in general, they use to answer back, positively, when they become happy with the services they got. People super welcome, super well served, use to convert themselves in warriors, evangelists, defenders, promoters, friends, addicted to whom is providing them with everything they dreamed, in terms of supplyment! People, in such level of satisfaction, gives more value to the relationship than to the cost to keep such pleasant status. A lower price strategy will not be sufficient to make their minds. As much as they be pleasant and satisfied, they will, proportionately, offer fidelity!
Every human being likes to be well served, since, naturally, he deserves that. The great challenge is to make all the employees of a company adopt and consolidate such culture of service dedication, in order, to do what they have to do, from the heart. False feelings, sooner or later, will be unmasked. Thus, also sooner or later, the other part (the customers) will go for a revenge or retaliation, as soon as they perceive they were betrayed!
The problem is that a lot of businessmen do not consider marketing as they should. A great number of them consider the company from inside to outside, instead of the contrary. Many of them are prepared to do the richest for customers, but, on the other hand, they offer the poorest to inside people, trying trough this action increase proftability. However, the employees are those which will take care of these very important people, called customers. In general way, unhappy workers do unhappy services. Other businessmen use to forget to give same level of importance to their supply chain and so on. The real marketing cannot be taken just from one or two perspectives. Marketing should be a way of life. It should be universal and holistic. However, it is possible that a company has no economical conditions to practice the real marketing at the moment; anyhow, it should be the driving way to the future. Marketing should not be a circumstantial activity but a philosophy to be applied in general sense.
Every company is under very similar market challenges, however, those ones which have the ability to adjust their offer to the real needs, desires and fantasies of their customers, those which can balance the price level with proportional services and benefits, those which can offer delivery security, as well as to accomplish the promises they did during the negotiations and support the customers with some extra valued services, almost always, by this level of attention, will guarantee a happy and long-term relationship, promoting high level of business satisfaction for both – customer and supplier – Prince and Sleeping Beauty Princess.
Frequently, new businessmen use to look for marketing advises in order to push up the operating results of the companies they started. However, the company results are not only dependent of marketing activities. Challenges can rise from everywhere, from other management areas, like Production Lines, IT (Information Technology), Financial Department, Human Resources and so on. However, if the opportunities for improvements were located on marketing area, the solution will remain on a better management of one, or more, of the 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) of the marketing mix. Personally, I prefer to analyze these variables in a more detailed way as follow: Product, Price, Promotion, Propaganda, Merchandizing, Publicity (Press Advisement), Distribution, Personal Sales, etc. I will try to explain better each one of these variables in the articles I intend to post in the future.
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Marcondes (11/09/2012)