Marketing is All About Promotion

I always start off my “Making Marketing Make Money” course by asking the group “What is Marketing?”. The vast majority of answers come back with a variation on “promoting what you do”.

Marketing clearly is responsible for promoting the company and what it does but it needs to do a lot more than that. Marketing needs to be at the heart of every company as at the heart of marketing is the customer.

Marketing needs to be trawling current customers for testimonials and feedback. It needs to talk to the after-sales service team to find out what existing customers are happy with and what they aren’t. It needs to liase with finance to find out where the profits are, what it can offer that is low-cost, high-value and what things need to shifted and by when.

OK, let’s start at the beginning. Market research is the first step for any company. This is the most often over-looked part of marketing. This is a vital step where you find out:

• What People Need, Want and Desire (in terms of what you want to deliver)
• What they are Willing to Spend

I am convinced that the majority of new companies fail because they assume what people need, rather than ask them. I also know a whole industry (telecommunications) went under in the 90’s as while it offered a service that people did need and want it was beyond what people where willing to spend. Broadband only really took off when the price dropped from £100 to £15 per month.

There is another thing that marketing must do which is keep an eye on changes in the above points.

Woolworths did not go under due a lack of promotion. It had adverts on TV with Woolie and Worth, it did regular offers, it was in key places on the High Street and it was a cherished institution.

What happened was the Needs, Wants and Desires it filled where being better filled by competitors. For example, most people buy DVDs and CDs on-line.

A few restaurants I know have gone under due to an unwillingness to reduce their prices or give offers (i.e. what their customers were willing to spend has decreased). Although, I still believe the vast majority are suffering due to a lack of promotion.

And the companies that have done well in this period, have simply expanded the profile of their clients, e.g. where previously they targeted people on over £40 000 per year they are now targeting those earning up from £30 000 a year.

This is what marketing is about. It is about staying in touch with the customer and what they Need, Want and Desire. The credit crunch for instance has meant that people now want products at either a reduced price or more for the same price. It is not the case that people just want “cheap stuff”.

Marketing needs to determine what you offer and at what price as well as the promotion of your company and its offering.