PART 1

MARKETING OVERVIEW

There are dozens of definitions of marketing, and if you read them all, you’d still struggle to gain clarity. Part of the problem is that marketers (myself included) like to make things much more complicated than they really are. (Job security I guess.) But it’s also because the term marketing, like the term business, covers such a wide swath of activities. The following will hopefully add a bit more clarity.

In its broadest sense, marketing is a systematic approach to identifying, designing, and selling things that the customer finds of value. Value means the benefit received by the consumer in terms of functional benefits (for example, a faster laptop, a higher resolution TV), as well as emotional benefits (for example, the status achieved by wearing the latest fashion or the sense of security received by having the safest tires). The profession of marketing is about uncovering these tangible and intangible needs of consumers and delivering them to the market—for a profit.

What Marketers Do

Marketing is about the sequential planning and implementation of four main activities:

1.   Customer and market insights

2.   Marketing planning

3.   Marketing execution

4.   Marketing optimization

Customer and market insights are used by marketers to predict the direction of an industry or product category and sense the needs of consumers. All great marketing programs result from superior customer and market insights. Anyone can manufacture a product but will it truly connect with the consumer and provide her something uniquely valuable? Or will it be simply be the same as other products and take its place in the discount bin?

Marketing success is grounded in knowing things your competition does not. This begins with an intimate understanding of the consumer—her unspoken needs, expectations, aspirations, and fears. A variety of research techniques is used to tease out this knowledge. It’s painstaking work, but world-class marketing is not possible without world-class insights.

Marketing planning applies customer and market insights to identify new or enhanced products and services that better meet customer needs and then determines all elements of the marketing mix (the 4 Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place, Promotion) to deliver this.

Product: It’s obvious that the marketer must determine what product to produce. But what’s not obvious is identifying a product that brings something uniquely of value to the marketplace, the better mousetrap. All good product development begins with identifying a unique feature or benefit that’s currently not available to the consumer. With this in hand, the marketer works side by side with research and development and packaging design and engineering teams to perfect all aspects of the product.

Price: The marketer also decides at what price to sell the product. Price the product too high and sales volume will be hurt; price it too low and profitability will suffer. This means finding that perfect price point that maximizes overall sales and profitability.

Place: Once the product is made, the marketer has to deliver it to the end user —at what ‘place’ will the consumer actually buy it? There are many different options available to the marketer, including selling it directly to the end customer, using a variety of third parties such as retailers to distribute it, or a combination of these. This distribution decision profoundly impacts all aspects of the marketing plan.

Promotion: With the product produced and distributed to the market, the marketer must create a plan to stimulate consumer demand largely through advertising and promotional activities that encourage product trial or repeat purchase. The options available to the marketer to do this are limitless, however, marketing budgets are not. The marketer is perpetually on a quest to find the perfect mix or promotional programs that maximize sales and profitability within the available budget.

The marketer will write the marketing strategy providing a detailed recommendation of the strategy, tactics, and investment for each of these 4 Ps. Of course, this investment comes with a commitment by the marketer to achieve specific annual sales, profit, and market share objectives. It is the combination of the marketing strategy and objectives that form the annual business plan that is the core responsibility of the marketer to deliver.

Marketing execution plans and creates the many specialized activities required to bring the product to market, influence consumer brand perceptions, and motivate consumers to buy. This includes all forms of marketing communication such as advertising, digital, social media, point-of-sale marketing, consumer promotion, and trade marketing. Each of these areas requires a great deal of skill and expertise by a wide array of professionals.

Marketing optimization is responsible for measuring, analyzing, and continually improving the performance of market campaigns. The relentless optimization of a brand’s advertising, event, promotional, and digital program performance is crucial to drive maximum effectiveness and efficiency of the marketing investment. The superior application and interpretation of data is the foundation of this important activity.

Where Does Digital Fit into the 4 Ps?

It should be no surprise that digital tools and technologies have radically altered the marketing universe. But the fundamentals of marketing do indeed remain the same. It’s just that the opportunities within have exploded.

Digital technology can provide entirely new product development opportunities enabling a product to also become a service (for example, Nike Fuel band). Of course, e-commerce has created a global marketplace and profoundly altered where and how consumers buy products. And digital media and technologies have transformed the field of marketing communication.

Digital has indeed reinvented marketing but has not changed its core concept: create and market products of value to customers for a profit.

PART 2

MARKETING CAREERS

MARKET AND CUSTOMER INSIGHTS

The essence of business advantage is possessing knowledge your competition does not. Customer and market insights are the tools used by marketers to acquire this knowledge and guide them to make smarter and more informed business decisions.

Customer insights aid the marketer in identifying new product innovations. It helps him know which product formulations and packaging designs consumers prefer. It assists him in uncovering the secrets of shopping and why people buy what they buy. Customer insights also enable the marketer to find sharper ways to advertise and position the brand so it stands out in a crowded marketplace. Also, market insights guide the marketer to understand how his industry will be impacted by cultural, societal, and technological shifts and thus to make smarter future investment decisions.

As you might expect, the digital age has completely revolutionized this field. The volume and variety of digital and social data available has grown exponentially over the last 10 years, providing an unprecedented look into the customer’s mind and her shopping habits. Advancements in computing technology (think IBM, Watson) have also made it possible to analyze mind-boggling volumes of data. But marketers still struggle to capture and apply these data to benefit their business.

This is a fascinating field that employs a variety of methods to gain unique and forward-looking views of the market, consumers, and marketing-campaign performance. For those of you with strong quantitative skills and an insatiable desire to get inside the head of the customer, this is a great career option with serious demand and growth potential.

Great (or terrible) market research management is the indispensable rudder that points the marketing ship in the right direction.

Market Research Manager

(Also Called Customer Insights, Market Research Analyst)

The market research manager guides the brand or product manager across all elements of the marketing mix. She plans and executes research to answer the brand’s most important questions:

    Who are our customers and what do they need?

    How can we develop products that provide greater value to the customer?

    How should our products be designed or formulated to meet customer needs?

    Should we invest (millions) in advertising campaign option A or B?

    Where is the market going? What will it look like in 5 years? In 10 years?

    How do customers view our brand versus that of the competition?

    How is the market segmented, and which customer segments offer the most business potential?

Where and how to look for these answers is the core function of the market research manager.

    What research techniques should be used?

    What customer sample size and profiles are