Week 11!

Welcome to the final week!!  This time we are changing things up a bit and doing a high level overview of marketing.  I’d like to explain marketing how I’ve learned it so far.   A lot of the conceptual information comes from Cohen’s book on Drucker and everything we have discussed regarding Drucker’s marketing ideas. 

Marketing is more than just creative advertisements and promotions.  Marketing is a focus on the consumer and markets of those consumers.  One of the most important lessons I learned during this class was that the consumer really drives the products on the market, not the companies that are making them.  If something does not appeal to the purchasers, they don’t buy it, and if they don’t buy it, the company can’t afford to continue to make the product.  Companies need to constantly review their product lines and see what stage of the product lifecycle the item is in and assess whether there will be future sales.  Drucker mentions that we cannot predict the future, but we can use the data we have to make an educated guess on forecasts. 

So although markets promote and advertise, it is really the consumer that makes the ultimate decision on whether an item will be a success or failure.

One of the key focus areas for marketers is the market for their consumers.  Rather than look at the product, they should look at the market they will appeal to and make decisions based on that.  By looking at demographics and market landscapes, marketers can decide how to establish the right promotions and advertisements.  For example if a product really appeals to an older generation without as much computer knowledge and access, an online promotion probably isn’t the way to go. 

 

 

 

In our Pharmasim world we did a cold medicine scenario.  If we had research shopping that young families do most of their shopping in the grocery store for cold medicine and young families are our main buyers, we should gear our strategy to a special promotion in the grocery channels.  Marketers should focus on markets. 

Another big part of marketing is developing a strategy, or plan, and looking at various research and data to support that plan.  There are a lot more numbers in marketing that I would have originally imagined.  Without an overview of your return on marketing spend, your marketing efficiency, and your net contribution model, a strategy would be really tough to develop.  Marketers need to know their product demand, product potential, and targets before moving forward.   With this also comes knowledge of competitors.  Those in marketing need to know what their competition is doing before being able to make a fully educated decision on where to take their product.  Important information includes pricing, promotions, and sales.  In the instance where a given market has the estimated potential for 100 million units and demand of 70 million units, a marketer would need to know how many units the competition is currently selling before determining if branching out into this market is a lucrative move.  If the competition is selling 65 million units, well, there’s not a ton of extra room to move in there.  If the competition has only recently broken into the market and is only selling 30 million units, there may be a good opportunity. 

Marketing is more than just looking at price, promotion, product, and placement.  It’s looking at the consumer needs and demands and how to reach those consumers.  Adjustments to strategy should be made based on the consumer and the competition.  Strategy revisions should be done often, and products that are not reaching their full potential should no longer be sold.  New products and innovation should be constant.  Without marketing and innovation, companies will not succeed according to Drucker.  Focusing on profit more than consumers will not lead to results, but rather a focus more on consumers will lead companies to produce profitable products.  The constant review of product lines and strategies allows for companies to not rest with status quo and to adjust for the future. 

Marketing has been a great learning opportunity and has allowed me to think about things in a new way.  I hope after reading this you will look at marketing in a slightly new way as well.