The Biggest Myth about Marketing
Marketing is a very misunderstood word in business. Mostly, advertising, publicity and sales techniques are considered as marketing. This is based on the belief that marketing begins after the product or service is designed, produced and is ready for sales and delivery.
Advertising, publicity and selling are all some parts of marketing. But overall, marketing is much more than all this.
The right approach towards marketing should focus on the following:
- Identify the right customer segment.
- Design, develop and produce a product or service which is needed by this customer segment.
- Communicate the benefits of the product or service to the customer segment by creating a unique place inside the customer’s mind.
- Deliver the value to the customer through the product or service.
- Gain profit in return.
Marketing is all this.
All marketing efforts should be centered on identifying and satisfying the customers’ needs profitably. Marketing is not an isolated effort. It should be woven into all activities of a business. For this, all business activities should be carried out in such a way that they contribute to the success of the business in generating profit through the satisfactory experience of the customers. Here are some examples:
- The quality and performance of our products or services, their price and their availability methods affect our marketing.
- How the customers feel while interacting with our business in any manner is the area of concern of marketing. How our staff treats our customer affects our marketing.
- The voice and tone of our telephone operator, customer support executives or salespeople affect our marketing.
- Our after-sales service policies and execution affect marketing.
- The design and layout of various parts of our store or our business premises affect marketing. The same is true for our website also.
- The stationery or packaging which reaches our customers affects our marketing. Even the format of our invoice affects our marketing.
A customer’s needs can be satisfied, only if she gets to have a positive experience every time she interacts with any part of our business. So, not only the marketing department but everybody who interacts with the customer or contributes directly or indirectly to the experience of the customer is involved in marketing, knowingly or unknowingly.
(Expert advice to GROW your business wherever you are, whenever you want.
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