The Law of Marketing
Have you ever wondered, how a small business, shop or any other firm becomes a brand in their niche or market ? it is just a good product they sell makes them what they are ?
Well the answer is that there is more to it than just a good product.
If a good product doesn’t solves the problem of your customers, will it sell ?
The answer is “ no “.
The answer to this problem lies in marketing.
Marketing is all about “meeting needs profitably”.
It touches all the aspects of business and focuses on customer needs to create a customer centric product.
The aim or purpose of marketing is to understand the customer very well and to create a product that is apt for the customer and meets his needs for customer satisfaction.
The need of the customer or solving a customer’s problem is of utmost important.
As customer is the centre of all the activities that firm performs, so that the product gets sold by itself without getting into the sales concept.
A great product always sells itself, however it needs marketing.
The other aim of the marketing is to ease the selling process at each stage of the sales process.
In marketing, emphasis is on integrated marketing strategy that covers, Product, Promotion, Pricing & Distribution.
In Integrated marketing scenario, all departments of the business operate in a highly integrated manner, the sole purpose is generating customer satisfaction
Building a Strong Brand
Google is one such example, it is so strong that users don’t search things online they just “ google ” it.
Branding is about creating a customer for life by gaining its trust and by sending the right message to the right audience at the right time. This helps firms to be a first choice in the mind of a customer. And that helps businesses in building a brand out of them.
A great product converts your customer into a brand ambassador of your product or a firm and word of mouth is the best channel for this as it creates trust among your buyers. And to have the customers trust is the soul of a brand.
For marketers it is very important to establish their firm as a strong brand in their market and this can only be achieved by gaining the trust of your customers. As it is the customers who will make the business reach at the firm’s desired position. If the business is in a competitive market and is competing for the top positions in the category and is unable to do so then it should identify the subcategory and try to achieve the top position in that subcategory as every market becomes a two player market in the long run. Hence it is very important for the company to start with a small niche and to become the №1 in that category to grow as a brand. Every brand should focus on being a better alternative to their competition as it helps them to get to the top position.
It is also essential for a firm to adapt new age technologies that fits well into their marketing strategy. By introducing or adapting it first into their marketing strategy before the competition, is to make a move to achieve the leadership position. As the firm gets the “First movers advantage” that helps in building a better brand leadership in the competitive market.
Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing
Marketing scenario has changed rapidly in the last decade. With more and more businesses inclining towards “ Online Marketing “ as the main part of their marketing strategy along with the traditional marketing strategy.
It won’t be wrong, if it is said that online marketing has snatched a significant share of the marketing budget from the marketer, which was earlier allocated only for traditional marketing.
This even holds true for SME’s & Micro Small businesses, though micro small businesses never had a budget for ATL advertising initiatives, but they always had a huge contribution in BTL marketing initiatives, that has significantly gone down due to “online marketing”. Which has turned out to be a cheaper and reliable alternative for small businesses.
With micro small businesses, retailers & individual workforce, it’s a misconception that they are untouched by the online marketing revolution, however this doesn’t seems to be true, with the exposure to so much of tech in their hands like, whatsapp catalogue, digital payment avenues , listing on Google My Business and various online directories.
Business are also happening on social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. Individuals have started using these platforms to create their passive income by doing affiliate marketing and they are earning more than their main source of income.
This all was achieved because of faster internet and the smart mobile devices. Hence the marketing has partly shifted from Televison, newspapers and radio to the internet based devices.
However traditional marketing is the foundation and will have enough space along with “ digital marketing” to be in the marketing strategy of a marketer.
The way people use to consume content and make buying decisions have changed. Yes Martech has changed it and it is precisely measurable, unlike traditional marketing.
Marketing has evolved, the field of marketing has taken a new shape and this has taken marketing to the next level. Which is not less than a revolution.
Earlier the communication was consumed in the same way by every member of the households, be it newspaper, television or radio. It communicated the message that was not necessarily meant for everyone but for the decision maker.
Digital marketing has changed the marketing landscape, marketing communication is now more personalized, accurate and faster than before. And the main reason for this better internet connectivity, 4G networks & cheap hosting companies that provide valuable service.
The best part for the marketers is that their hard efforts are trackable and transparent than ever before.
Marketers know, how their customers behave, they know their intentions, how much of the content they consume, what type of content is consumed more, on which device it is being consumed, from which geography or location they get their most customers from, which product or on which page of the website they spend their most time upon and even more than this.
This data helps marketers to analyze and make better decisions to strategize more efficiently and to generate leads, sales and to follow up with their buyer till buyers trust them and do transact with them.
Digital Marketing Integration
To make the digital marketing process seamless, it has to be integrated, below is the diagram that shows the same. Here the content is marketed by using paid marketing for sales and conversion. Email marketing is being used as a tool to get more subscribers, SEO and Social Media is being used to market the content organically.
It is very necessary for marketers to be in touch of what’s happening in the rapid changing world of marketing. As new updates, keep coming from various platforms, where marketers find their target audience and communicate with them. Also they have to invest time in learning new tools and technologies to achieve an edge over their competition.
Thanks to the industry newsletters, websites, industry magazines, seminars, webinars & influencers, that help marketers to keep them abreast about the latest happenings in the field of marketing and technology.
