“Marketing is a series of activities and processes used by a company to create, communicate, and deliver offerings associated with buying and selling a product or service.” It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P's of marketing or the “marketing mix”:

1- Product: Brand Functionality, Appearance, Quality, Packaging, Warranty, and Service

2- Price: List Price, Discounts, Financing, Payment Plans, and Leasing Options

3- Place: Location, Logistics, Service Level, Market Coverage, and Channel Members

4- Promotion: Advertising, Budget, Personal, Selling, PR, Message, and Media

As well as the assessment of the 5 “Constraints” known as the 5Cs:

1- Customers

2- Competitors

3- Company resources

4- Collaborators and Partnerships

5- Context

This seems like a lot already, right? In reality this barely scratches the surface of what marketing represents to our lives. This is why Regis McKenna stated “Marketing is everything” because everything you do – not just your products, pricing, promotion, and distribution, but even your billing, the way you answer the phone, the speed at which you respond to problems – it all affects how your customers perceive your company and brand. Marketing is not a function; it is a way of doing business, so Marketing is Everything and Everything is Marketing!

Many people think marketing is advertising (on TV, Radio, Newspapers or Magazines) or public relations (events, exhibitions and congresses) developed by big corporations, something very far away from our common and daily life, but this is not true.

Marketing is much more; it's everything you do to present your personal or company brand to the rest of the world, it's your way of introducing your values into society.

Let’s think about our personal lives; how many times do we need to introduce ourselves to new stakeholders? We do so when we sell or buy a house, ask for a service, register our kids in school, take an exam or take part in an interview. In all of these instances, we are selling or buying “something” and the way we do so is through “marketing”. Take the example of a man cooking a special dinner for his partner. The way he invites his partner for dinner, the way he presents the food on the table, the way he serves the dishes, and the conversations he initiates… that’s all marketing! So if you want to impress your partner, it’s best to pay attention to all these details!

Marketing is not a tool reserved uniquely for big corporations. No matter the size of the business, the industry or the scale of profits, everybody needs marketing, and many organisations – especially small firms – are already marketing without even realising it.

For marketing to effectively introduce and promote a product or service to customers, it must be done right, or else you risk being misunderstood. On the other hand, without marketing, even if your business offers the best products or services in your industry, none of your potential customers would know about it. So, not only do you need “some marketing”, you also need the right marketing!

If your goal is to increase sales or internationalise your business, the only way to reach more customers is by developing a proper marketing strategy that includes traditional, digital and social media activities. Last but not least, marketing builds brand name awareness and recognition. As your reputation grows, the business expands and sales increase.

So, at the end of the day, even the best products or services need a marketing strategy to be discovered and appreciated in the market.

All in all, if you have a great product or service to sell, you need to have an equally great strategy and tactics to present to your audience so they perceive the added value you bring to their lives. This will help them decide to buy what you’re selling and eventually become loyal customers. To be able to develop a strong marketing strategy you need to start by understanding your customers, what their needs are and how your product can meet those needs. In the modern era, the digital world enables us to have unprecedented access to information that can help us discover and better understand the marketplace. With the level of tracking and analysis technology provides us with, we are able to see how our customers are responding to the various communications initiatives delivered through the digital platforms and learn from their preferences and behaviours.

Digital research is another great topic worth exploring, keep on following us to learn more!

Chiara Caligara