Table of Contents
Marketing Techniques
Is Marketing a science?
It is not. Do not be surprised as people believe that it is a science.
Is marketing an Art? No! it is beyond science and art.
Then what is the reason marketing is not science or art? The reason is that science follows some set of rules and never can go beyond or out of the track. However, when a company or person tries to register his/ her thoughts to some other’s mind, it can not be done through a set of rules. Because people’s many physical attributes can be defined by science but not the mind. It is not art, as only qualitative value without quantifying the outcome is not the purpose of marketing.
So, in my view marketing is Philosophy. Philosophy is not contrary to science but where science ends; philosophy starts. So, when I say ‘NO’, it is to say that do not try to arrest the power and wideness of marketing in an envelope of science but it is science and much beyond that.
And I get confidence when Philip Kotler, the father of Marketing defines marketing as “the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit”. When science and art shake hands, it breaks the boundary of our thought and the ultimate thought comes which is called philosophy. It shows how important is marketing for an organisation as well as how much talent is required to design it and execute it with proper thought and plan.
Is product promotion marketing?
The answer is Yes and No. The biggest mistake is that many professionals think that product promotion is marketing but not. Product promotion is a small part of marketing. In fact, the majority of divisions in a business house, and activities of a business organisation are part of marketing. Like sales, product development, pre and after-sales services come under the Marketing umbrella in a broad sense. Even many experts say that finance, R&D or inventory management is also part of marketing.
It is an accepted concept that business has only two wings. Marketing and Innovation.
Everything you do in your business is Marketing. When I say everything, I literally mean everything. From writing software, to talking to customers, to meeting with clients to closing a sale, to customer support and building a brand, is all marketing. How come writing software is part of marketing? Yes, even writing/ developing software is marketing. When a user uses a piece of software, if it does not do what they expect it to do, they will have a bad impression of your product. Without understanding how your users are going to use your software, your software will most certainly not able to satisfy a customer. By having a marketing mindset, you have a better chance of writing software that people want and are happy to use. Market survey, needs creation, and end user’s opinions can only help an organisation or a team to deliver a good product where marketing plays a major role. This is why everything in your business is marketing.
Traditional marketing techniques still matter.
Signage:
Old wine in a new bottle
Signage materials comprise digital photos framed and lighted in the dark. Digital signage has moved on from boring walls to mobile taxis, reaching a wider audience than ever before. Adorning buildings, shop-fronts, and malls. Signage transformed from old photographs to new LED displays and widely used everywhere, old wine in a new bottle.
Billboards:
Makes highway driving less boring.
Billboards using printed or hand-painted images on canvas are still very commonly in use. From highways to hallways, billboards have come a long way. This traditional marketing mode uses less text and more images. A picture is worth a thousand words and compelling images are great for raising brand awareness. This is a marketing method most are familiar with. Larger signs will never be overlooked and billboards cannot go obsolete, given their wide reach across social classes and geographical boundaries. Here also LED displays took place in some cases with the advantage of advertising several products on a single billboard.
Flyers and Brochures:
The Power of Hand-outs
Still many people like printed documents than softcopies. The major advantages are that one can keep notes when reading, eye comfort, touch and feel, and give physical reminders in front of the eye. For certain products distribution of small handouts in highly populated areas like an outlet of railway stations, movie halls, busy pedestrian roads, and outside of stadiums are very effective to reach targeted people (certain economic status or some cultural/ regional belief like Diwali/Eid offers, opening of new exclusive shops etc).
We often see when banks send a new credit/debit card they attach a bunch of handouts with several offers and features of their other products to attract specific requirements of a person. Technical brochure with detailed specification is very common and most used marketing tool for almost all companies globally. Examples are endless. Hard copies will always hold their places inspite of soft copies being used in parallel.
Direct Mail:
Moving from post to courier and now Email Marketing
Once upon a time, people would tag it as snail mail when mails were send by post offices. Now, direct mail scores on creativity, personalizing and targeting a particular audience. Direct mail is not just easier to understand, it also has a greater power to influence readers. Brand recall is way higher in research studies where direct mail was compared to other marketing methods like email. Faster response rates, more purchases and greater ease of retrieval make good old-fashioned direct mail the real deal in new-age marketing.
Email bursting became very popular. It surely has a huge effect and outcome. However, as usual, mindless overuse of it irritates people more than they really respond or even read it. The main reason is immature marketing bosses push their team to send it at random and most of the customers receive irrelevant emails. My personal experience is that I receive at least 10 emails per day and keep on blocking them as otherwise they send very polite(!) reminders reminding me that I missed to reply the mail.
However, targeted mail bursting where customers can really appreciate the mail can be very useful. For that sourcing bulk email IDs from unethical organisations is not the solution but the sales team needs to work hard to find the appropriate email IDs from fields, seminars, conferences or webnair and update them with new products or offers can be effective.
Face to Face Interaction:
Where reality beats virtual marketing
Traditional marketing has been around for ages. People are used to it. Traditional methods from signage to networking at events, cold calls and referrals harness the power of human interaction. This really works well, to close a sale. Tangible, physical canvas, paper, and traditional marketing mediums evoke a sensation and a lasting memory.
The most impactful skill in selling is relation-building. Relation matters as most companies need to sell products in a competitive market where customers have several choices.
Event Marketing:
Networking with a Difference
During the olden days, traditional copyright marketing ruled the roost; nowadays, the game is all about generating a buzz. While the power of a persuasive copy should be ignored at your own peril, traditional marketing now incorporates event marketing with a difference. Networking is the key to attracting top talent besides marketing products and services.
Telemarketing:
Cold calling to hot talk
Telemarketing became very popular with the evaluation of first-generation mobile phones. With time it became hyper and most irritating for the public because of the overuse by the banks, insurance and other finance based product selling companies.
I really have no idea or data on how effective it is but, surely, success comes from financially poor people (personal loans, credit cards etc). Either those people ruin later or the organisation as they do not care bout the credit score.
Anyway, anything unethical can not be justified by success as such companies should use it judicially.
Contemporary high-yield marketing techniques
Digital Marketing
It is not that traditional marketing is outdated and no more useful. In most of the cases, these are most effective. Companies still follow the traditional marketing technique. However, traditional marketing has the limitation of reaching a large number of people and involves high costs whereas Digital Marketing can reach millions and billions of customers in a very short time as well as targeted customers.
If we take the example of a billboard, which is fitted outside the VT railway station, can attract the attention of thousands with a very attractive picture. However, if it is an advertisement of an expensive car or apartment it fails to reach to targeted audience vis a vis high cost involvement. Whereas using digital marketing a company can reach to targeted customers based on their financial status, geographic identity or liking etc.
Anyway, as it is a vast subject I shall write separate articles in this blog on Digital Marketing based on my formal learning, keen interest and some better understanding as an electronic engineer.
Conclusion of Part-2.
Hope you enjoyed reading and have a good understanding of marketing reading Part-1 and Part-2. Several parts are yet to come to cover the entire topic. I feel when you shall complete reading all these articles here you shall have a reasonable understanding of marketing. As otherwise people understand marketing like the blinds describe an elephant. Someone touched the trunk and said, ‘Elephant is like a pipe’. Someone touched its ear and said ‘Elephant is like a large leaf’. Someone who touched the elephant’s leg described it as, ‘Elephant is like a round pillar’.
As marketing is not pure science there are several other concepts, overlaps and opinions available. It is like nothing is completely wrong or right, you can study further but the basic understanding is clear to you by now.
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