A blog dedicated to helping aspiring marketers understand the nuances, must begin its first post on defining marketing. I could have chosen the title of this post as simply 'Marketing Definition', but I feel that that over the years marketing has been diluted both by specialization driven by the business schools and organizational structures, and relegated many a times to a secondary role within companies. This is especially true in companies that primarily sell to other businesses (B2B), as against individual consumers.
So what is marketing in its essence, you ask?
Marketing is an integrative thought process that animates the organization from creation to delivery of products and/or services, and determines how best to capture their value from consumers who accept them as meeting their needs over that of competing offerings.
I hope I haven't scared you away :) Let me explain the rationale for the choice of the elements in the definition.
- Integrative thought process: First and foremost, it is essential that we put 'thinking' back into marketing. Because that is what it is - thinking through the process of value creation - concept to delivery. Secondly, marketing by its very nature integrates all that the company needs to do or does (irrespective of function) into a promise that the consumer responds to favorably with his wallet.
- Animates from creation to delivery: Just as life animates our body, marketing brings purpose and life to every facet of the organization through active collaboration. For example, with engineering on product design; with manufacturing on cost, quantity and quality; with finance on pricing, profitability and absolute profit; with sales on customer needs and new product introduction.
- accept them as meeting their needs: Too many marketers lose sight of the qualifier - as accepted by the consumer. The most sophisticated market research and psychographics would make no headway, if the consumer is unwilling to accept it as fulfilling his need.
- Over competing offerings: You would be surprised how often businesses forget this very important part - you just have to be better than those competitors (including the 'status quo', the greatest competitor).
Over the life of this blog, this practioner hopes to go deeper into the practice of marketing as embodied in this definition. And in that journey, he hopes to rediscover some of the joys that first drew him to this profession.
And that concludes the first lesson in my new avatar as a marketing educator. Till next time...ciao.
