Marketing an expense or an Investment !

Marketing has always been an essential part of promoting or advertising products or an Idea. A good marketing plan can decide exactly where a future of an organization is heading towards. An effective marketing plan can improve sales and create brand awareness in a short period of time. Apparently the sales guys in an organization know what and where to market in order to boost the revenues and increase sales. However this is a organized activity in a big organization wherein there is a dedicated team that works day in and day out to position the products into the market but this is not the case with the startups as they feel it’s an expense to their organization and hence the growth is either slow or they shut down early a case study reveals the information. Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is about far more than that. For so many years (maybe decades), marketing was synonymous with advertising in many people's minds.  In some circles, it still is.  We need to change that. Here are a few points to discuss about :

1.       Traditional way of Marketing is a contest for people’s attention:

This has always been the case.  Whether you're renting the attention (advertising) by purchasing media from someone that has people's attention already -- or you're earning your own attention by creating content and adding value, marketing is a contest for attention.  Will subtle byproduct of this:  When you're buying advertising, you're not just competing with people in your industry -- you're competing with anyone that also wants that same attention.  For example if you are an automobile company and advertising your products through an advertising agency you are not only competing with other automobile companies but a soap or beer company as well who are also trying to get the same audience attention.

2.       Good marketers realize marketing is not an expense, but an investment.

3.       Fitting in is a failure. Not standing out is the same as being invisible.

Most of the companies make the same mistake, they look to “fit in” to the existing market and does not try anything new follows the traditional way to make the customers or target audience comfortable. That's the wrong way to go about it.  It's an easy way to lose the marketing game. All the creativity in the world won't help if you're unwilling to have lousy, lame, even bad ideas. Ask yourself this question:  What was the last really lousy idea your marketing team had?  If it takes you a while to answer it, and you have to really stretch your brain to remember -- you're not taking enough risks.  You're need to have lots of ideas that are lousy and don't work in order to find the brilliant ideas that do.

4.       Give away the Idea it’s now or never: 

This is harder than it sounds -- but it works.  One of the best marketing has been the "inbound marketing".  This is either by the word of mouth, advertisement, sales strategies or the service quality. A fair amount of the value of your product or service is credited with the early spread of the idea of inbound marketing. The more you give your idea away, the more your company is going to be worth. As an organization grows and succeeds, it sows the seeds of its own demise by getting boring. An Idea very much different from what makes you stand out from the competitors, this idea can be a reason to succeed or collapse. This is scary -- but true.  It keeps me up at night.  I ask myself all the time, are we getting too boring?  You should too. This idea is something you have to take into consideration and implement at the earliest as the market and the competition would never stop. The largest enemy of change isn't 'no', it's 'not yet' - that is the easiest way to forestall change.

5.       Become the “Other” not the “Next” :

Don’t try to be the ‘next’. Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new. This is particularly good advice for startups.  When you start, everyone will try to do one of two things:  a) Put you in an existing box.  b) Call you the next [x].  Both are not good.  You don't want to be the "next", you want to be the "only".

6.       GREAT MARKETING AND THINGS INVOLVED INTO THE STRATEGIES :

People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic. Having said that there is an investment involved in creating that magic which most of the organisations misses on Great marketers make sure they're getting a return on their investments.  But, in order to get the best returns, they need to think like venture capitalists and have a portfolio of things they invest in.  Some will work, some won't -- but you're looking for that breakthrough. If your organization requires success before commitment, it will never have either.

7. Selling

a. Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing though, that’s efficiency.

b. Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting some.

8. Design, Trust, Promise, Commitment & deliver

Permission marketing is marketing without interruptions. Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand. Market-driven design builds the success of the product’s marketing into the product itself. Marketing is the way your people answer the phone and your return policy. The scalable, profitable strategy is to change the game, not to become the most average. Finding new ways, more clever ways to interrupt people doesn’t work.

In today's best startups, they don't sprinkle marketing on after the fact, they bake it into the product from the beginning.  But, this advice doesn't just apply to startups.  Even if you're further along -- ask yourself, "What could we do to make this experience better for our customers?"  Chances are, every dollar you spend making the experience better will be the best marketing dollar you spend.

9. Is customer the real King?

A happy customer that pays on time is a gem to the industry, Fire the customers that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others. Customers care about the price only when they have nothing else to care about. Customers can feel love -- even from brands.  If you're apathetic -- or hostile -- to your customers, they'll know it.  It's really hard to fall in love with a company that doesn't love you back. To dance with customers is an act of co-creation. When was the last time you asked a customer:  "May I have this dance?"

10. Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.

Analyze your efforts :

What could you measure? How fast could you get results? If you measure it, it will improve. Remarkable visions and genuine insights are always met with resistance. Do not be easily dissuaded from pursuing some radical idea simply because of some initial resistance.  

Startups Need to have a very aggressive marketing team that could help the organization in branding, marketing, sales and a sustainable business. The conclusion would be a healthy organization with existence in the market with a great marketing plan as it is an INVESTMENT and not an EXPENSE.

Any feedback for the above article is highly appreciated.

Thanks a Ton for reading.

Cheers !!!

Niyamat Patel