I am a believer that marketing is a people business. The economy is made up of value-added and GDP generated by people’s talent, creativity, knowledge, competence and hard work, among others. Consumption of goods and services are key drivers of the economy. Thus, products and services exist and are developed to satisfy needs and wants of consumers.
I tend to love people and building relationships. People meet each other informally, such as at networking events, where a moment or something that a person says strikes you with the possibility that you will keep on remembering that person and building an acquaintance. You may not have known a work colleague well but meeting in different circumstances such as a company event, or even socially such as meeting at a wedding or a party where a conversation develops, may set off a different dimension to your relating with that person.
Marketing is the same. It is about the customer experience which creates engagement such as the bond between the consumer and a brand/product, the loyalty towards a financial services company, to mention a couple of examples. To create loyalty, engagement and a delightful customer experience necessitates understanding your customers and taking care of them. Economics, sociology, psychology, statistics and accounts are all subjects studied in management and with others, each play a part in working out a formula for a product or service to be successful on the market. A quality and attractive product, priced at the value which its customers or users are comfortable to pay for, promoted in an engaging way and made accessible as expected, is the mix of the 4Ps (product, price, promotion and place) which are key determinants of market success if marketers see their plans and strategy from the eyes of the people to whom the products and services will reach.
The way that people have empowered themselves through the choices they make, how much to pay for them, how and where to get what they wish and require, is testimony of the evolution of the market we are experiencing, bringing out the reality that producers and service providers exist to meet the needs and wants of customers. A course of possibly more success for companies and organisations, is when they are ready to understand people and engage with them through a sense of service.
In a digital world, people interact by making use of different services available, source products (internet shopping as a common example), use social media, administer their personal finances and other matters. The next evolution is how people will continue moving towards using digital tools to obtain what they need and want in life, in the way that they wish rather than reacting to being bombarded and influenced through digital media and similar channels. Companies and organisations need to remain consistently aware that customers are human, who will continue to make their own choices and that digital marketing presents tools within the virtual world for the creation of interaction, engagement and communication.
First published on The Malta Chamber Blog
Why Marketing Is A People Business – A Personal Point Of View