What is marketing?
Marketing is defined as “the set of activities to present products or services to make them desirable.”
That’s a pretty broad definition, but it fairly well encapsulates the concept of marketing. It’s the sum of all the parts that make a consumer take action, and involves research, advertising, packaging, distribution, customer service, database management etc… In a classic context there is the notion of the 4 P’s: Price, Place, Promotion, and Product… with others adding Positioning as the 5th.
I’ve heard it said that, in effect, everything an organization does is marketing.
At the end of the day, your business succeeds as a direct result of marketing, whether you recognize it or not. So every effort you make should reflect the overall brand you are striving to achieve.
Even a simple ‘hi’ is marketing.
A quick story: I recently started going to a gym. Now, over the last almost 40 years of my life I’ve probably been to a gym a total of maybe 10 times, and every experience to date had been a bit intimidating.
- The machinery and options can be overwhelming
- There was rarely someone around to ask that seemed to care
- Clearly I was disrupting routines of the ‘regulars’
So it was with a sense of trepidation that I, once again, made an attempt to go to a gym. The motivators for this? 1 – I’ve been out of shape for the last almost 40 years of my life. 2 – I was the recipient of a trial membership as a result of a fundraiser. Yay.
Despite my hesitancy, I bit the bullet and signed up for my trial period. On the surface, this was another typical gym (albeit quite a nice one) with a vast array of elaborate looking equipment, walls of mirrors, and a collection of clients with chest forward walks and biceps the size of small babies.
Although it seemed typical, I quickly realized this one was a bit different. It was the staff, and in particular the owner, that made this different.
The owner, who is generally on the floor, always seemed to make a point of acknowledging me by name. He would do this with virtually everybody, often having a brief discussion then generally ending each conversation with ‘have a great day’.
On my first couple of visits he also, unprompted, wandered over to me, chatted quickly, then gave some pointers regarding whatever piece of machinery I was using. Unprompted, certainly appreciated. He recognized I was new, and went out of his way to make sure I was getting the most benefit from his service.
And this stretches beyond the owner. His team are all quite friendly and interact with the clientele.
Granted he seems like a genuinely nice guy, and not to take anything away from that, but this is also a carefully constructed marketing approach.
When I decided to commit to the gym, I mentioned that one of the deciding factors was the environment and his approach to the clientele. The owner was quick to point out that prior to owning his own gym he had noticed how impersonal the typical gym environment was and he wanted to create a different environment. He identified a need and set out to fill that need. He embodied his own marketing message and made it key with everyone he hired.
The result? His business is growing and clients are staying with him. Sure he’s got other marketing efforts that support this, but a simple “Hi” has become a part of his marketing system and it works and supports everything else he has set out to do.
It’s important to remember that every single interaction the customer has with your business has to support your overall message. In such a service dominated world today, perhaps we should consider adding ‘People’ to the P’s of marketing.
