Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

The first thing to do in critically analyzing that statement is to decide what side you're on. You seem to be "justifying" it - taking the "Pro" side. You could take the "Anti" side and say it's pure bunk, also. Next, understand is what is meant by competitive advantage, yes. You started off right. But more importantly, what is meant by "sustainable?" Next, what were the other ways to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage prior to the 21st Century and why have they gone away? Finally, you can look at the tools of marketing communications, as you have suggested, and justify why they are the savior to competitive advantage.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

Dear emisai,

Lordy! You've struck some serious nerves.

Competitive advantage, eh? Mostly meaningless.

Marketing communications tools, eh? Essentially useless.

Marketing communications will be the only sustainable
competitive advantage in the 21st century, eh? Utter nonsense.

Let's break things down here and apply some real world, smack in the head logic to the nonsense your tutors are pumping into your head and those of your fellow students.

Now, I'm going to presume that your teachers don't actually BELIEVE this point of view about marketing communications being the only sustainable competitive advantage in the 21st century, But if that's NOT the case I do so wish marketing tutors and professors would pull their heads out of their asses, really I do. Why? Because when these kinds of values are vomited out into
the educational world and then taken on face value out into the commercial world and acted on as gospel, businesses suffer.

Competitive advantage works when there's CHOICE for consumers to pick from (based on what's best for them when it comes to meeting their needs and exceeding their expectations), and choice based on quality of service, quality of goods supplied, and quality of follow up and guarantees offered and acted on.

You can have all of the competitive advantages in the world: big budgets, lots of staff, top flight R&D, lots of media access and so on and so forth. But if the interface between customer and company is some bad-tempered, narrow-minded, couldn't give a crap halfwit with an MBA and a trendy haircut who's more interested in dicking around with their iPhone than meeting the needs of the customer, you can kiss your sale goodbye—and, on top of this, you can also welcome the cloying embrace of bad karma from negative word of mouth.

Not good.

As for marketing communications tools? Monkeys with sticks can often do a better job of getting the goods to market than many of the tools on offer today.

Why? Because of application. Ever tried to open a can of beer with a hammer? Ever tried to change the the channel on your TV with a banana? My point exactly.

Tools are all fine and good IF you use the RIGHT tool for the right job. Try and drill a hole with a screwdriver and you'll see what I mean.

The best tool in ANY marketer's toolkit isn't a synergistic metric, a paradigm shift, or a quantum leap (and on the subject of quantum anything, quantum physics refers to things on the tiniest of scales, so a quantum leap is NOT a massive shift, it's the smallest possible change from one state to another without going through any intermediate state). No, the most important tool is relevance.

And finally, on to the assertion that marketing communications will be the only sustainable competitive advantage in the 21st century.

Indefensible. In the summing up in a marketing court a really sharp CPA marketer, or a direct response marketer, or an affiliate marketer would be on this argument faster than a rat up a drain pipe and there would be blood! A lot of it.

Here are just a few things (in no specific order) that TROUNCE marketing communications on more fronts than this feedback form permits in terms of space: value; social good; community involvement, customer loyalty; repeat sales; continuity; life time value of customer; dispute resolution; brand stewardship; brand advocation; social proof; testimonials; video; affiliate sales; relationship creation; being cool with customers; solving people's problems; offering stellar benefits; supplying unadvertised bonuses to thank people for their business; giveaways; follow up; fulfillment.

The whole marketing communications thing as "only" solution is crap and in truth, always has been.

It's what's said, to whom, about what, when, and how it's directed and which need or projected future it's projected onto that's of far greater significance. By this I mean, what will the goods or services do and where will their application take the customer—emotionally, and in a meaningful enough way in terms of solving the customer's problem.

Nail this one thing with your marketing and you'll never be out of work.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

oops...my keyboard got stuck on "underline."

Thanks, Carie! :)