From a very small fish to becoming the big one and then the biggest among all. This is how few brands have changed with time e-g: Levis Microsoft and many other “The Big Fish”
The financial success of such brands have been depending on combined efforts of their financial strategies and their marketing efforts. One thing that’s been common among all there brands is a high degree of Brand loyalty. They have managed to capture the share of heart and in turn share of customer’s wallet.
Companies now understand that marketing plays an important roll in their overall success ,so now companies have CMOs (Chief Marketing Officer) along with CFOs and CEOs. They understand that if there are functions close to customers its ether Sales or Marketing. Sales become a direct interface among customs and products offered by companies, and marketing is an indirect function between customer and the company.
But what makes marketing so big? Why is it important? If you have a great product you are bound to succeed then why do u need to spend on marketing / advertising?
The answer to these questions lies deep within the customer’s brain. Customers / consumers are smart and they understand what makes your product different form mine. If you are offering then 1 % more that what I do why should they pay me rather than paying you. That’s the point. And secondly it’s important to communicate the product offerings to the end user. If a marketing team has worked hard on understanding the consumer needs they need to make sure their customers get a feel “This brand knows what I want ”. Trust me this is the only major differentiator between why your 1% more is able to get you more loyal and more number of customers.
The time has changed. To products that are offered by a brand you have “n” number of more substitutes and consumers get to know which is the better substitute that suites there requirements . So it is important to make sure that marketing efforts are more on understanding the changing needs on today’s customer. We need to understand the minds of customers. It’s rightly said “customer is KING”
Marketing managers need to understand the customer needs and they need to make their major decisions such as the features to include, the price to be offered to customers and what to spend on advertisements.
Marketing today has become a emotional research which helps understanding customer and consumers psychology so that products are developed based on these understanding. The marketing managers need to answer following questions:
- How do we find the right market segment?
- How do we differentiate?
- How can we compete with low cost business models?
- How do we build a better brand?
- How do we reduce cost of customer acquisition?
A successful Marketing team can carefully analyze customer needs and carefully monitor there competitors marketing moves. Remember a short term sales driven view does not work in business world today. The C-level managers, the CEO,CFO should communicate importance of marketing in an organization, how the marketing function plays a great role in organizations success.
Also read: Emotional Marketing | SWOT / TOWS Analysis | Porter’s Generic Strategies | Marketing Mix |
