Know-How Exchange : MProfs PRO Seminar Q&A

Maybe there's a problem with Stelzner's definition of Marketing. Isn't Marketing understanding what your target audience is going to need and making sure you can deliver it to them (and make a profit at the same time)?

If that's right, I can't imagine that NOT marketing will ever be able to grow a business. Which part of that definition would you NOT do?

Or is it the pricing strategy that you won't do? Or maybe the packaging? Or product development?

What's the catch?

Rephrasing mgoodman's objection, another way of describing marketing is "everything you do to make the phone ring," (versus sales, which is what you do after you pick up the phone.)

There used to be a fairly common prejudice against marketing by German SMBs founded by engineers. These SMBs are the country's export driver. Some of these founders pretty much ignored customers, treating them as a necessary evil. However they were fanatics about product quality and innovation.

Customers would put up with the hostile "order taking" departments to get their hands on the fantastic products. However since the advent of E-commerce as a major factor, this "anti-marketing" philosophy has been losing ground in Germany.

Regards,
JH

All wonderful questions. I'll discuss this in detail during the webinar.

Excessive of anything could damage the very purpose for which it is done. It is the case with marketing too. Instead of making people believe in what we say, we unintentionally may force them to disbelieve us by doing it in excess.

Many a times we come across people commenting as “it is a marketing gimmicks” or “it is a mere sales talk”. Today’s marketers have become too aggressive and there is a rat race for one-upmanship. Excessive marketing has started irritating the customers and prospects. We and or our competition may be doing that. But, the result is that the customers have developed aversion to all our marketing efforts.

So what happens to our marketing efforts?... People do simply change the channels when it is time for commercials on TVs. They do just erase the emails and SMSs from their inbox even without opening such messages.

Customers have become matured and are intelligent enough to seek the right and relevant information to make their choices. They do access to various data to make their informed decisions.

So, in the true and wider sense of Marketing, still it is relevant to understand what the customers need and require. Still it is always the right thing to develop the products and services that exactly meet the needs and aspirations of the customers. But, we need to be selective on what we do to promote the sales of our products.

Still you need to be known to your customers. Your products must be well known to them. But, you have to find different ways to be in touch with customers instead of through your traditional advertising and promotional means. You could educate your customers. You could train them. You could disseminate the valuable information to them without actively (or rather irritatingly) selling yourself.

I am seeing a trend in technical marketing in which I am part of, in my company. We share case studies. We educate customers as how they can arrive at the right technical solutions or in fixing up the technical specifications of the product they need. We share the facts and figures that are relevant to them for making their considered decision. We do point out the limitations of our products too. These all make the customer to develop a trust in us. Further, after all our customers’ decisions depend on what actual pre-sales and after sales support we provide.

When we come out of the rat race of the traditional marketing, we may be left with a huge saving on costs on these fronts. These funds could be used in other avenues like customer service, customer education, customer training etc ,enabling us to be ahead of competition on these fronts.

I would say there is a need to change the facet of marketing to make it more acceptable to today’s world; because, the customers’ behavior has changed. But, marketing in it is true sense will never lose its relevance. It will be always about finding ways to understand customers’ needs and meeting it.

Michael, not a question, just a comment:

I've watched you for a few years now because of a recommendation from Mari Smith during training with her, and can verify that you are one of the most giving, charitable people I've met via Social Media.

You are a fine example for all to follow. I appreciate you, and the material you shared today, and that you share every day on your site. :-)

Blessings,

Nancy Myrland

Mike, I just installed the Print Friendly plugin to my blog...THANKS!!! Finding a print solution has been on my to-do list waaaay too long! :-)

Thanks, Michael. Great to reset one's perspectives with those values that one can get nostalgic about -- trust, worthiness, respect for customers -- in a decidedly modern and practical framework. Much appreciated.

Question for you: While these principles are great for building a business, which of them would you recommend to help fend off a competitive attack in an established field? Two examples come to mind:
-- A small, specialty publisher offers a monthly edition for a subscription cost. A new competitor enters the market offering a similar online service for free. Advertisers prefer the one with the largest subscription base.
-- A large organization offers emergency roadside assistance to customers who pay an annual membership fee in advance; another large organization enters that space and offers a similar service for free (applying a fee only if someone actually calls for roadside assistance).

In both cases, the original businesses need survival make-overs; the issue is, how is that best done while preserving as much of its original customer base (and income) as possible? What elements of an elevation strategy might you apply in businesses that face similar aggressive situations, and where would you start first?

Michael isn't promoting "not marketing." He's promoting "not doing bad marketing" -- not pushing your stuff at people.

His implicit assumption is that marketing exists to sell stuff, not to meet customers' needs. And that's an unfortunate misunderstanding of what Marketing is all about. And we should all be offended by that.

What Michael IS pushing is a great [marketing] strategy for ensuring that marketers keep customers' needs first. He's exactly right that giving away content is a great strategy.

But that's not the same as "NOT marketing." The title of the seminar is just to provoke discussion and draw us into his web. Too bad, because it's insulting to professional marketers.