What is Marketing?
Where do you start?
Firstly, if you're looking for a textbook definition of marketing, this article isn't going to help you. You can get that from this textbook or if you want something a little more affordable, I'm told this is quite good as well. This bit of writing explores marketing from a more philosophical perspective as well as a practical perspective so structuring your thoughts about, around and within the field is an easier task.
To learn something as multifaceted as marketing, it helps to have a very high level idea of what marketing is so that as you go through your journey of marketing, you have a reference point to always come back to. Instead of having to answer 2000 questions for every marketing activity, it's far easier to have one, simple question to answer and this is in-fact the case. The simplest definition of Marketing is the discipline that creates value for the customer.
How does that happen?
You find out what a consumer or customer wants, understand it deeply, provide a great solution for it that is easily accessible and exchange money in return for providing that solution. If any one of these components are lacking, the effect on the output (earning money) becomes apparent. A simple thought experiment can help us understand if that statement is true or not.
It's pretty obvious that no one will buy if you don't find out what a customer wants so let's look at understanding the problem deeply. Understanding a problem on a surface level or even mediocre depth doesn't give you the authority to solve the problem but rather, the symptoms of the problem. I won't go as far as to say that there won't be actionable items for you to accomplish with superficial understanding but that's precisely why it is so dangerous. You'll be investing time and money in treating yellow stained teeth when the real problem is smoking. Sometimes patchwork solutions are the only kind of solution you have but this is very rarely the case. It's often laziness and misguided motivation that leads to patchwork solutions.
How the marketing system works
Essentially marketing is a behavioral science because it reacts to a consumer want or need. Decades of research on the subject has isolated 7 key variables that alter the way consumers buy.
Product :- What is being bought
Price :- How much the customer pays for it
Place :- How the product is distributed to the customer
People :- The individuals the customer interacts with in the delivery of the product
Processes :- Production, Logistics and any other process that is involved in the delivery of the product.
Promotion :- How the customer is found and is asked to buy
Physical:- The elements of the physical environment the customer experiences. (Layout of the store, design of premises etc)
The goal is to manipulate these variables in a way that meets customer wants or needs (see the previous section) as well as the top-line (revenue) and the bottom-line (profit) targets. It is possible to try and alter one of these variables while keeping the others consistent but rarely successfully executed. A change in the production process might have a change is cost, which will affect price and perhaps the product, which will in turn lead to a change in promotion. That is why marketing isn't easy. It's a cerebral, sophisticated science that demands it be taken seriously if results are to be met.
This podcast episode will be helpful if you want more depth.
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Dhyresh Mendis
is a Graphic Designer specializing in Brand Identity Design. His love for structures and systems has sent him on a journey to understand the fields that Identities support at great depth - Marketing and Brand Building.
Where do you start?
Firstly, if you're looking for a textbook definition of marketing, this article isn't going to help you. You can get that from this textbook or if you want something a little more affordable, I'm told this is quite good as well. This bit of writing explores marketing from a more philosophical perspective as well as a practical perspective so structuring your thoughts about, around and within the field is an easier task.
To learn something as multifaceted as marketing, it helps to have a very high level idea of what marketing is so that as you go through your journey of marketing, you have a reference point to always come back to. Instead of having to answer 2000 questions for every marketing activity, it's far easier to have one, simple question to answer and this is in-fact the case. The simplest definition of Marketing is the discipline that creates value for the customer.
How does that happen?
You find out what a consumer or customer wants, understand it deeply, provide a great solution for it that is easily accessible and exchange money in return for providing that solution. If any one of these components are lacking, the effect on the output (earning money) becomes apparent. A simple thought experiment can help us understand if that statement is true or not.
It's pretty obvious that no one will buy if you don't find out what a customer wants so let's look at understanding the problem deeply. Understanding a problem on a surface level or even mediocre depth doesn't give you the authority to solve the problem but rather, the symptoms of the problem. I won't go as far as to say that there won't be actionable items for you to accomplish with superficial understanding but that's precisely why it is so dangerous. You'll be investing time and money in treating yellow stained teeth when the real problem is smoking. Sometimes patchwork solutions are the only kind of solution you have but this is very rarely the case. It's often laziness and misguided motivation that leads to patchwork solutions.
How the marketing system works
Essentially marketing is a behavioral science because it reacts to a consumer want or need. Decades of research on the subject has isolated 7 key variables that alter the way consumers buy.
Product :- What is being bought
Price :- How much the customer pays for it
Place :- How the product is distributed to the customer
People :- The individuals the customer interacts with in the delivery of the product
Processes :- Production, Logistics and any other process that is involved in the delivery of the product.
Promotion :- How the customer is found and is asked to buy
Physical:- The elements of the physical environment the customer experiences. (Layout of the store, design of premises etc)
The goal is to manipulate these variables in a way that meets customer wants or needs (see the previous section) as well as the top-line (revenue) and the bottom-line (profit) targets. It is possible to try and alter one of these variables while keeping the others consistent but rarely successfully executed. A change in the production process might have a change is cost, which will affect price and perhaps the product, which will in turn lead to a change in promotion. That is why marketing isn't easy. It's a cerebral, sophisticated science that demands it be taken seriously if results are to be met.
This podcast episode will be helpful if you want more depth.
Dhyresh Mendis
is a Graphic Designer specializing in Brand Identity Design. His love for structures and systems has sent him on a journey to understand the fields that Identities support at great depth - Marketing and Brand Building.