So, what then, is Marketing?
Simply put, Marketing is a series of activities, different in nature and objectives that guarantee sales. In times like this, it is even more difficult to determine what those activities are. Yet, they encompass activities that have already taken place for “sales” to take effect. How long a marketing campaign lingers depends on a variety of factors, some of which include: product type, customer demography, trends, and marketing strategies.
In the light of objective clarification, it is no surprise that I always preach the amalgamation of “sales & customer service” as a single department. The relationship between sales and customer service is highly/directly correlational. Customers provide feedback to the customer service department about the products they acquire. Such information is then routed to the production team for strategic planning of future implementation. Whether such feedback is positive or negative, the work of a marketer or the marketing department, which is to ensure that a potential customer is aware of a product existence, thus validated by a sale is done.
Marketers/marketing department can move to other potential customers with the same objective of converting them to loyal customers. The cycle continues for marketing, with sales as the output of marketing process.
Marketers are Informers
To inform is to continuously update customers with product and service information. Avenues to inform increase geometrically in the light of technological development. Influencers and mass media are common tools in marketing. A massive billboard on Sheik Zayed road might not guarantee a sale, but it can guarantee that potential customers are effectively informed about product existence. Once informed, they can be managed accordingly till sales are achieved.
Not every potential buyer becomes a buyer. A primed marketer identifies a potential customer and aligns his/her effort accordingly. This is where the marketing funnel comes into play - a concept usually misunderstood for a sales funnel. It is the marketer who monitors customers by building relationships that nurture the action of customers.
Marketers are Remarketers
Just as we require different levels of food and exercises to function as humans, customers require relative level of information methodically to make that anticipated purchase decision. While an initial wave of information is enough for some customers, others require exposure to an amount of remarketing to be primed for sale. This is remarketing - re-feeding the potential customer for eventual sale.
Marketers are Customers’ Confidence Boosters
Students and professionals alike require some techniques to boost their self-confidence. While some of them find it difficult to accept that confidence is not one of those concepts that can be taught, I continuously emphasise that confidence about a contest is a function of the amount of knowledge one carries about that contest. As a male, I do not apply make-up. I am not privy to make-up informatics. If asked about make-up, I am certain confidence will fail me. However, as an entrepreneur and academia, my confidence is primed to discuss business issues whenever I am called upon. It is the function of the marketer to provide customers with information that boosts their trust and by extension, their confidence on a product/service to make an anticipated sale.
Clarifying the marketing function by eliminating its vagueness with sales is an important step in the promotion of marketing practice as a key aspect of modern business operations. The task should not be undermined so as not to dilute the operational effectiveness of the marketing concept. The marketing field requires core professionals who consider awareness creation as their forte. Let us not deprive them of such pride in their work, effort and ultimately, the results they achieve.
Tosin Ekundayo doubles as an Entrepreneurship and Business Lecturer for several universities in the United Arab Emirates and General Manager for Bimtrac Consulting where he mentors and supports startups for growth and sustainability. With students spanning over 25 nationalities and entrepreneurial protegees across the world under his tutelage, he is the author/co-author of 10+ entrepreneurship books and articles distributed globally. He is a member of several professional bodies, speaker and professional trainer, an entrepreneur, and a skilled data scientist.
https://www.bimtracconsulting.com/