Dharmendra Satapathy

Sunday, December 31, 2006

What is marketing????

What is marketing???

Kotler answered this for me in my campus.

It read something like tailor made solutions for identified customer needs.

And in contrast "sales" was something like producing a good first and subsequently palming it off for a price.

So marketing was akin to a "A la ca rte service" while a buffet spread best resembled "sales". That was my way off comprehending definitions. Definitions after all are edicts meant to be permanently etched in the mind. No questions asked.

Going forward, I came face to face with this question several times during job interviews. And each time I batted my way through the interviews based on the Kotler recepie along with some additional garnishing. As I went along I too had my chances of throwing this question on unsuspecting candidates who faced them with familiar dexterity.

But as I went along I got time to introspect and question basics.

Was Sales really about producing and palming off?

Why on earth would someone ever do anything like that? Who would take on the risk of producing without a market in mind? I doubt people were so stupid prior to the invention of marketing.

In marketing you make what the customer needs? Is this always true?? Will the customer always articulate his needs? Did the customer ask for the Walkman or even the generic need of music on the move. Did he express his need for the laptop or the desk top or any other gadget?

Does the customer always know what he needs? If one were to wait for the customer to order our world would surely hit a speed breaker. And if we could produce what the customer needs we would all be immortal by now for the greatest need mankind has ever felt has been to defer death permanently.

Discovery, invention, a brainwave many a times lead the marketing effort. Needs can be created. Show me something specia and I will create a need for it. Think about it.

These were the questions I grappled with for some time. That lead me to ask the same old question - "what is marketing?"

As I traversed through this jargon filled terrain of advertising I had the good fortune to meet people with sound practical experience, poeple who loved questioning basics, people who redefined what was defined. And somewhere, all of a sudden the haze started to clear for me.

The real meaning of marketing as I started to understand had its meaning embedded along the product consumer spectrum

I realized the need to always understand certain things viz:

1) It is important to understand what people feel in general.

2) Secondly it has been proven that there is nothing like a rational decision and that all decisions are essentially emotional in nature.

3) There is a glaring gap between reality and perception and ironically the latter is more real than the actual reality. The following example underlines this anomaly

Most people have never met either Amitabh Bachchan or Sanjay Dutt. But if you ask them they will have enough and more to share about them. They will emphatically say that Amitabh Bachchan is extremely humble and Sanjay Dutt has turned over a new leaf. It is obviously shaped by media which is consumed by them in large doses. Now this may or may not be true but their perception is as true as it can get. They will fight tooth and nail to defend it. Their perceptions have been shaped beyond repair and they will rubbish all that is said against their views and will pehaps even ridicule the perpetrator of a contrary view.

Some other examples of well established perceptions are:-

Princess Diana was a noble woman
Mother in laws are bad

Daughter in laws are worse
Ratan Tata is a noble businessman
Ambanis are cut throat businessmen
Government enterprises are always inefficient
Private enterprises are always efficient
Police and politicians are corrupt


This is the world where perception rules reality. And this perception needs to be managed. Various marketing concepts like positioning, branding etc. find their bearing in this world.

Beating competition with a better product has never delivered desired results historically in the market place. The is because the magic lies in creating a better perceived product for the consumer and not necessarily a better product. Being first, being a leader are better expressions of quality than the standard quality parameters.

All marketing elements such as product design, product quality, pricing and distribution are mere tools to mould this perception. The management of this perception is the cornerstone of marketing. This is the anchor which holds the marketing strategy together.

Hence to begin with it is more important to have an understanding of people's beliefs and perceptions rather than their demographics. This is a lot harder as it is not a function of data mining but about constantly speaking to consumers, spending time with them, unearthing their innermost views. It is a continuous process of engagement and intense observation which will make one sensitive towards perceptions help deep within. Of course by constant reading and keeping abreast with studies one could come close to getting to understand the inner thoughts.

The task of marketing is then to manage perceptions to the advantage of the product or service being marketed. In this pursuit the first step is to simplify the product or service. Allow the product details and complications rest. Think of the magic proposition that will cut across gender, age and class of consumers. The task is to seamlessly market the proposition across this mass of consumers in a manner which is relevant. Each and every constituent of this mass audience should receive this communication as if it was personally being directed at him/her. Hence identifying that common thread which is relevant and true to perceptions of the mass audience becomes the marketing challenge. As always a couple of examples will help demonstrate this.

The Intel Inside campaign is one such interesting example where a product which is perfectly incomprehensible for almost everyone ( including most engineers ) was marketed in a manner which connected across the entire spectrum of the audience. People generally are curious about the insides. The common perception is that that external appearance can often be deceptive. Since the inside is not seen, one has to find out. In a car, information about the engine provides the desired comfort which propels one to make a decision. For example Isuzu engine in the otherwise ordinary Ambassador provided that comfort. The Mercedes engine in the Tata trucks helped enhance the brands perception because Mercedes was a God brand and its mere association helped tremendously. Such is the power of perception. The inside story was the chosen marketing strategy. If all brands of computers took pride in putting the "Intel Inside" sticker, it obviously meant that Intel was a special ingredient. And since it was termed the heart of the computer it further stoked the emotion. After all all and sundry know how important the heart is for the human body. This kind of analogy works wonders for mass marketing. The magic lies in simplification and analogies which helps translate the complexities of technology into relevant and comprehensible information. The task hence gets complete in 2 steps

1) Manage the perception of demystifying the inside story. ( People perceive that the inside story is more important than the outside story. Further they perceive the heart to be the most important organ of the body )

2) Explain the inside story in a simplified form using examples and analogies
If done accurately a mass audience will react in the desired manner and thereby bringing a smile to the marketing effort.

Another example which comes to mind is a lot closer home.

Raj Express is a leading brand in the surface transportation business. Its Volvo buses criss-cross the nation.

Now comes the marketing challenge.

What perceptions do people have about road travel?How do we change this? Road travel is widely associated with discomfort and fatigue. The diametrically opposite coordinate to road travel is air travel. Ask anyone about the most comfortable mode of travel and I can say without a hesitation that they will mention the example of air travel. This will be echoed by people who have travelled by air as well as those who have not ( in fact more vehemently by the latter ). Hence by communicating "experience air travel on ground" the brand was successful in managing the age old perceptions in the language that cut across the masses.

Thus, Marketing is nothing but the thinking behind the approach which helps make an offer seem a lot more attractive. It could be endorsement by a film star or a sports star or sponsoring the biggest soccer tournament etc. Anything done in a relevant manner in a language and tone that cuts across masses is marketing for me.