Despite full employment and although we live in the most capitalist century in our history, marketing is still a secondary expense for many companies.
Let’s not even talk about communications – the whole thing often forms a single department, the one regrouping the “cute girls in charge of drawings”. How is that even still possible?
Marketing and communications, same thing?
The first mistake of many SMBs is that they won’t even see the difference between marketing and communications.
The role of marketing is to establish a fit between a product or service and its market (consumers). What do I sell, to whom, at what price, through which channel?
As you notice right away, marketing is deeply related to the very art of product design.
Let’s be clear: It’s not about taking “any item” produced by an engineer (even if it’s really great), saying “oh wow, how nice!“, design a logo and put it on sale to see if the fish bites.
At the very core of business management, it is rather necessary to make sure that your item fulfills a need (or a least, a desire). Should we add features to surpass a competitor? Adjust the production costs to access a greater pool of consumers and guarantee a convenient return on investment?
Those are questions at the very heart of profitability.
Consequently, marketing itself is a crucial key to profit earning.
Then you may wonder: how comes marketing employees are still considered as a disposable, second-importance resource?
Don’t hesitate to read Stephanie Kennan’s article on that subject (in French).
Media placement, PR… all expenses!
For many entrepreneurs, marketing is about advertising and that’s it. It’s about executing broadcast tactics.
“Product. Consumer. Just create the link between them, please.
Send emails, seduce prospects. Generate leads.”
We are getting closer to the concept of communications (and don’t misunderstand me: I won’t minimize their importance in comparison to marketing).
Finding the means (words, graphics, media) to reach targeted individuals. inform them about our very existence. Convince them of our usefulness. In the end, generate an act of purchase or simple appreciation, depending on whether the art of communications must be performed to reach sales or visibility.
Believe me, effort and talent are needed to perfectly adjust the shot!
Fashionable relationship marketing
It is interesting to think about how the emergence of relationship marketing has, in a way, done a lot of damage to the proper understanding of our industry.
Relationship marketing aims at establishing individualized, interactive, recurring relationships with customers, in order to build a lasting, engaging emotional link to them, and ultimately, sell them our products (many times—if possible).
In other words, there is only one step between relationship marketing and consumer communications—this step being the conversation between the brand and the consumer, which is often the most difficult to climb.
Beware of extrapolations! I do not want to imply that relationship marketing is a useless fashion, or a new, meaningless word. No doubt about it: it is a critical trend, a key tool that you should definitely consider adding to your toolbox if you didn’t already.
But this toolbox must be brought to heel and integrated within your marketing strategy, like a faithful dog awaits his master’s command. Mostly you need to ensure it goes after the right fish.
Conclusion
Do you want your marketing to shoot your best arrows?
Position your archer as close as possible to your business strategy.