What exactly is “marketing”?

We are all familiar with the concepts of marketing and operation, but we are not familiar with the difference and connection between the two. Let us go into today's article and understand that both have important commercial value and are not only applied to enterprises, but also exist in families, society and other levels of marketing and operation.

Marketing often appears in many scenarios in our daily life. For example, if this account is a marketing account, I will definitely not add it; the product quality of this brand is average, they just do a good job in marketing; it seems that marketing has some negative effects. So how should we define and understand marketing? I will give a brief explanation from three aspects: the definition of marketing ( what is marketing ), the main content of marketing ( what is marketing ), and the difference between marketing and operations (maybe there is a chain of contempt here).

1. What is Marketing?

Let's look at a complex version first. According to Kotler's definition, marketing is a social and management process in which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want by creating products and value and freely exchanging products and value with others. My understanding of marketing is the process of enterprises discovering or exploring the needs of potential consumers, allowing consumers to understand the product and then buy the product . The purpose of marketing is to increase exposure, expand market share, improve brand awareness and reputation, so as to achieve the company's profit goals. In addition, I will use a big picture to make an overall summary: marketing is equal to the process of doing 1 value + 3 management .

2. What to market

1. Market analysis

According to the framework of PEST and Porter's 5 forces, we can make a macro analysis. PEST is relatively basic. Here I will give a brief overview of Porter's 5 forces. The 5 forces refer to the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of buyers, the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitutes, and the competition of existing competitors in the industry. These 5 forces are more of a theoretical reasoning and reference. In fact, there are three types of successful strategic ideas behind them, which are well known to everyone: total cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy, and specialization strategy.

2. Market segmentation, target market selection, and market positioning

Today's business world is extremely colorful. The ideas you come up with are either already being done by other small companies or by large companies. If you, as a latecomer, want to catch up, you have to think about where your opportunities are. This opportunity must be in the niche market. Even if you can only do business with 10,000 people in the end, that's already great.

Generally speaking, segmentation can be based on geographic location ( for example, local life applications in Hangzhou ), demographic segmentation ( moms, white-collar workers, etc. ), behavioral segmentation ( mainly high-frequency behaviors, such as buying groceries ), psychological segmentation (adapting to high-premium industries/categories such as luxury goods), and another approach is to make a distinction based on 2B business, called industry segmentation . For example, for panels for customized furniture, specific segmentation can be made based on industry pain points.

Positioning is more universal. You must read the book Positioning, which is a good introduction. In addition, we should pay special attention to product selection and polishing . A good product is 1, and marketing is 0. Without a good product, no matter how many 0s are done in marketing, it will be useless.

3. Marketing strategy and plan formulation

This requires the application of the 4P and 4C theories. The former starts from the product itself, while the latter starts from the consumer. This is a timely change made according to the business stage. The 4Ps are Product, Price, Promotion, and Place, and the 4Cs are Customer, Cost, Convenience, and Communication. This is quite complicated, so I will share it separately later when I have the chance.

4. Customer Relationship Management

Let me continue to use the example of selling pancakes. When consumers buy your pancakes, how can you make them come back to buy them again and again, and be willing to recommend them to others, and even feel proud of buying your pancakes, happy to buy them, and profitable to buy? This is where customer relationship management comes in. If the driving factor for selling pancakes is that the meat fillings are made on the same day, fresh, and ready to be made quickly, then you have to find a way to refine your raw material collection process, and how to meet the needs of consumers with fast refining and ready to make. In short, this customer relationship should be long-term and diffusive.

3. The difference between marketing and operations

I think the most essential difference is the different emphasis on value: marketing focuses more on exposure, attracting new customers, and mindset; operations focus more on connection, efficiency, and closing deals . For example, if you want to sell pancakes, you need to think clearly about who you are selling your pancakes to, how they are different from other pancakes, where to find more people to buy your pancakes, and what impression you want to leave on consumers. These are the main things marketing does.

Operations have to consider how to quickly convert so many consumers, and whether they can recommend new customers to continue buying pancakes after the conversion. In addition, after the implementation of various front-end pricing, channel and other strategies, has the efficiency of various connections been improved? For example, the internal efficiency from making pancakes to selling, and from selling to packaging, and whether the conversion rate has been improved if instead of selling 2 out of 10 people who came to the store, more people could be sold.

One is more about virtual value, the other is more about real value. Of course, in a small company, these two functions are actually in one department, without any special subdivision. Don’t have this so-called contempt chain, and don’t think that someone’s work can be included in who else’s. Many times, we have to look at the current business environment, department positioning, leadership style, etc. to make specific division of labor and judgment.

Finally, I hope that when you look at marketing or operations, you should not just look at a certain promotion or activity, but really study customer value, drive business growth based on demand, and return to the essence of business. In addition, marketing does not only exist in enterprises, but also exists in families, friends, lovers, and even in society. Marketing is everywhere. For example, when I write this article, in addition to doing some precipitation and recording, it is also marketing for myself in a sense. So if you find this article useful, you can follow it . If you have any questions about operations and marketing, feel free to chat with me.

Author: Flower Planter

Source: WeChat Official Account: The sunflowers in the yard are blooming

This article was originally published by @种花人 on Operation Party. Any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 agreement