Question

Topic: Other

17 Year Old Interested In Marketing

Posted by Anonymous on 2/3/2012 at 10:34 AM ET 250 Points
I have the general idea of marketing, but would someone expand on the effective use of the different types of marketing?
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  • Posted on 2/3/2012 at 12:03 PM Accepted
    Different types? Not sure I understand.

    Marketing is figuring out what customers/consumers are going to need, and then finding a way to deliver it to them and make a profit at the same time.

    It's the same whether you're selling toothpaste, gasoline, or industrial machinery -- or anything else, including services, entertainment, information, or even a political candidate).

    Within that there are obviously lots of component parts -- positioning, packaging, pricing, promotion, product development, advertising, sales, publicity, public relations, customer service, etc. They are all part of Marketing.

    So what's the question? What is it you want to know?
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 2/3/2012 at 3:40 PM Accepted
    Dear Kelvin,

    For the moment, forget about "types" of marketing. Instead, I urge you to focus solidly on the point of the marketing.

    At its core, the bigger question is what's the reason for the marketing? What is the marketing for and what is the marketing meant to do, both for the people producing the marketing, AND for the people on the receiving end of the marketing?

    This then sets your mind on the point of the message contained IN the marketing.

    Who is the message FROM?

    Who is the message FOR?

    What's the message ABOUT?

    What problem does the subject of the message ADDRESS?

    What problem does the subject of the message SOLVE?

    What does the subject of the message SOLVE that problem?

    What are the GUARANTEES of the effect of the solution?

    How does the message recipient OBTAIN the solution?

    What action must they TAKE?

    When must they take that action?

    What will not taking the specified action cost them?

    At its root, all marketing has one objective: to increase revenue by maximizing the perception of the delivery of value inherent in the things, goods, or services on offer.

    To achieve this objective, every dollar spent on placing the impression of that imagined future—the way their life as it will become as a result of having bought the thing, product, or service in question—in the mind of the eventual buyer—every one of those dollars needs to bring back three to four times its expenditure in actual sales.

    Marketing that increases sales is effective.

    Marketing that does not increase sales or that reduces sales is not effective.

    That's pretty much it.

    The message contained in the marketing needs to be powerful and memorable enough to the make people that are interested in or effected by the overall substance of the message and the offer to stop whatever it is they're doing right there and then in order for them to take notice and in order for that specific message to have had enough of an impact for the viewer, reader, or listener to take action and buy something.

    I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

    Gary Bloomer
    Princeton, NJ USA
  • Posted on 2/3/2012 at 10:26 PM Moderator
    Gary wrote: At its root, all marketing has one objective: to increase revenue by maximizing the perception of the delivery of value inherent in the things, goods, or services on offer.

    I think that's a somewhat limiting view of Marketing. For example, it doesn't include anything about the product or pricing strategy, or distribution channel strategy. It also focuses on the PERCEPTION rather than the actual delivery of value.

    It's more like a definition of marketing communication. As important as marketing communication is, Marketing is more than marketing communication. For someone starting out in Marketing, I'd urge you keep the perspective as broad as possible. You can always narrow your focus later.

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 2/4/2012 at 10:43 AM Member
    Over the last three years on this forum I've offered what I've believed to be solid marketing opinion based on 25 years of experience as a designer, and as someone with a passion for advertising and marketing. I've advised a Fortune 500 company with 1.9 billion dollars in the bank, I've made a name for myself as a thinker on the uses of social media, and I've made a few people stop and think.

    I've never once claimed to be an "expert". I don't have an MBA, and I've never written a book. I'm from a blue collar background, I've worked hard, I've made lots of mistakes, and I've done my best to learn from those mistakes. I've never attended a class in marketing in my life and everything I've learned about the craft of marketing and design, I've learned the hard way.

    Every time I've answered a question I've done my best to be respectful of people's feelings, I've been mindful of the positions and experiences of my fellow contributors, and I've done my best to be truthful, open, and honest in the answers I've given, even, at times, when it's meant upsetting the questioner, and even, at times, when I've been wrong. When I have been wrong I've admitted as much and I've apologized.

    However, what I have not done is waste my time (or the time of the people who post questions) in questioning the opinions, viewpoints, or experiences of other forum contributors. Nor have I insulted their intelligence or openly challenged what other people think. When I contribute to a question on this forum I'm writing directly to the person asking the question. I don't write to impress people, I don't write to win points, and I don't write to make myself look clever. I do as much as possible to keep my opinions of the thoughts of other contributors to myself.

    What I think of another contributor's viewpoint does the person asking the question no good at all. I stand by the opinion in my original answer to this question—as my opinion, it's what I think.

    In marketing perception IS reality. In marketing, when the communication of any degree of value transfer fails, the message contained in that piece of marketing ceases to be a message.

    It simply becomes noise.

    When a commercial break interrupts your favorite TV show and you turn down the sound, or when you turn the page of a newspaper or magazine and the full page ad you're looking at is replaced by whatever is on the next page, in either case, and in hundreds of similar cases, when the message in the marketing fails to penetrate someone's thinking, that piece of marketing has failed and that inherent opportunity to connect with the viewer, reader, or listener is lost.

    The greater the frequency of that loss, the less effective the message becomes. The less effective the message becomes, the less communication there is of benefits, of values, and of solutions. And when marketing cannot deliver a solution to a specific problem, sales go down.

    I don't care what other people think of my opinions. And I don't care to be cross examined by other contributors. The content I've contributed to this site has set records, and, in some small way, it's helped just a few people see things just that little bit more clearly.

    For some time now I've been questioning just why I participate in this forum. I don't do it for money. I don't do it for points. I do it because I care and because I believe in my ability to help people. Given the viewpoint expressed by Michael Goodman, I'm wondering if that's really enough.

    Yes, let's retain and expand perspectives that are as broad as possible. Let us also see—and let us never forget—that in order to have a lasting, relationship- building effect, the role of marketing is to solve people's problems.

    Gary Bloomer
    Princeton, NJ, USA
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