THE SUBTLE ART

 

THE SUBTLE ART OF SATISFYING NEEDS

WHAT IS IT?

The art that forms the foundation of every business that involves set of activities, exchanging offerings that have value for society. This involves identifying and meeting human and social needs.This simple art form is called Marketing. It is the art of providing and satisfying the needs by providing just what the customer needs. It isn't just about selling, selling is just the iceberg tip which comes to everyone's mind when they think about marketing. Selling is a by product of marketing.

HOW IS IT IMPORTANT?

Financial success often depends on marketing ability. Marketing builds a demand for products and services, which, in return creates jobs. It is an intangible asset that contributes heavily to the value of a firm. It determines what the product will be, the target customer segment, the micro-market and many more things, without which the existence of products and launch of new products would not have been economical.

It's just like when you decide to jump in a swimming pool. First you check the temperature of the water, then you try to analyze how deep the swimming pool is, then you see the quality of water and many more things. 

Similarly while getting a product into the market, we need to understand various things and analyze them, which is a part of marketing.

Marketing helps boost sales. It is irreplaceable. It is that activity of the business which gives you immediate returns on investment, not like all other activities in business.It bridges the gap between the business and the customer.

How will a customer know the details about your product, it is through marketing.Marketing plays a key factor in decision making of the company.

LET'S GET TO KNOW THE BASICS! 

Okay now let me tell you what is a need, want and demand. 

So for us to survive we need oxygen, we need food to eat, clothing to wear and house to live in. These are those things without which we cannot survive. These are called as our needs.

 So now I want a bicycle. Bicycle is something without which I can survive, its not that if I don't get it it will be difficult for me to live . this becomes the want.

And in the last comes demand, demand is the want for specific products backed by the ability to pay. 

Imagine that your mom learnt how to make amazing cakes, and now she gets orders for cakes. So the link between learning how to make a cake and selling them is marketing. 

Initially you told your friend, you had some relatives to visit you and they ate it and suggested changes, then your mom's friend got to know about your mom's skills by your mom. Slowly your mom started taking orders and she initially just made a basic cake but then she realized everyone likes fresh cream cakes and started making those. These are similar processes involved in marketing.

The first thing that came to your mind was what? and the answer came as cake which is your "PRODUCT".

Then when you decided to sell the cake, you decided for how much to sell it for. That's the "PRICE".

The next step you thought of was how will people get to know about the cakes, so you spoke to your friends, your family communicated to their friends, you messaged, etc. This is the "PROMOTION".

Now you can't provide it out of your city so you decided that you will sell only in your city, which is nothing but the "PLACE".

So here we understood about the 4 P's of marketing. Once you answer these questions about what, for how much, how to get customers and where you will get a clear view of what actually is the business.

PERCEPTION OF THE CUSTOMER

Now to understand how to keep a customer happy we need to understand what does a customer go through before making a decision of buying a product or paying for a service.

Imagine that I want to buy a new house. So the first thing that makes me come to a decision is that I have a problem with my current residence. If I would have been happy I wouldn't have been thinking of buying a house. So here is the first step I do .i.e, PROBLEM RECOGNITION.

Now that I know that I have to buy a house, I will first understand what my budget is, what location will be best suitable for me, which developer do I trust and which I don't based on their reputation and observations. Here you try and search for information required. i.e. INFORMATION SEARCH.

Now that I decided I want to buy a property in Thane. So I will see various projects available, the location of the project, the amenities, then the price. I narrow down to limited number of projects. Now I compare and study the projects. That's the EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES.

Now that I have done research and made a choice that I like this project and check the availability. I go and give the token amount to seal the deal. Here we have made a PURCHASE DECISION.

Now that I have bought a house, When I get a call from the developer team and they take care of the maintenance even now it makes me feel good about it. This help the business get a loyal customer base. This is called the POST PURCHASE BEHAVIOR.

These are the various steps we go through before buying a product or service. 

To get a product in the market,we must think just the way a customer thinks and wants.

These are the initial few steps we should keep in mind before letting a product in the market.

 To get brand identity, it important we answer these questions at first and you have answers to all it will   be a right choice to make. 

NOW THAT WE KNOW THE BASICS 

Marketing doesn't just start the production of a product it starts much more before that. It starts when you decide what market you want to enter, what product you want to produce, and many more things. Marketing also includes keeping the existing customers happy only you will be able to attain a loyal customer relationship.

Imagine you are a vegetarian and you are hungry. I give your brother chicken to eat and that too 6 hrs later. Obviously he wont eat it. 

So it's important that the timing is right, the person should be right and most importantly the message must be right. Marketing involves the right message, right time and the right person.

In the above situation even if I give you veg food at the time when you are hungry, you may end up not eating it because there is no trust. Trust is the major component of marketing, based on which customer segment is formed.

DIGITAL MARKETING VS TRADITIONAL MARKETING

In life to compete in the race we need to make sure we stay up to date with technology to be one of the best. Who thought that a pandemic like COVID-19 would hit the world, but today we have been able to survive it to a greater extent. Even in this situation sales have been happening not just of daily products but also of real estate units. This has been possible only because of digital marketing. Digital marketing uses an online medium like social media platforms, search engines, etc. 

Traditional marketing is the offline marketing which is done using newspapers, hoardings, print ads etc. In this type of marketing surely the reach to the audience is high but the conversion rate is not much; which in turn is not that productive.

To decide what kind of marketing one should prefer it depends on the product the company has. When the product is generic, traditional advertising would be a suitable option to reach a large audience but when the product is personalized which is specific to a particular segment of audience, then digital marketing is the solution.

CATT MARKETING FUNNEL

Let me be on point about the CATT marketing funnel. 

CATT stands for

C= Content; This decides whether a customer finds it worth reading or not.

A= Attention; Once the customer likes the content you have his attention indicating the interest he has in your product.

T= Trust; Now that you have been able to acquire 50% of the customer, the conversion depends on trust. If he trusts your business he will decide yes or no.

T= Transaction; Now that the customer is yours you have acquired only if the transaction has been completed.

NICHE is the combination the talent you have, the passion you have and obviously the market in which you decide to setup your business. Once you select a wrong niche you are surely going to end up loosing everything. 

For a detailed guide on how to find a niche, you can visit – How to find a niche by Digital Deepak.

One golden rule about the CATT marketing Funnel is that

WEALTH = NICHE^CATT

INTEGRATED DIGITAL MARKETING

Integrated digital marketing is as it sounds, the integration of marketing strategies to form an online approach for business. 

Integrated marketing helps you skim through the audience and communicate only to the ones that have shown interest. It's an economical way to reach out the customers only after knowing they have interest in the product you are offering. There are various ways you can do that. The image shows the elements of integrated digital marketing. 

PERSONAL BRANDING : MASS TRUST BLUEPRINT

Remember one thing forever that 'Best known will always beat the best'. 

Branding has become the fundamentals of any business. Branding doesn't mean you have to be a famous person and only then your business will be valued. Branding is about staying up to date to show your presence in the market, have a unique selling point which attracts more customers.

Lets take an example to understand. Being Human, a well known brand. Whenever you think of being human it reminds you of Bollywood actor Salman Khan. This brand has been able to conquer a good portion of the customer segment due to its unique licensing agreement with The Salman Khan Foundation, according to which the Royalties from the clothing line support education and health care initiatives of the foundation. Now whenever Salman Khan enters into a new business, customers will have a belief that it is for good, this is the impact of personal branding. We observe that there is a mass trust here according to which customers blindly trust Salman Khan brand. ( Just an example being a Salman Khan fan) 

Personal branding is the trust a customer has on the person who wants to build a brand.   

SOME THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND WHILE THINKING ABOUT MARKETING

Communication skills are important in marketing.

Even though digital marketing is on the peak now, traditional marketing also has its percentage of reach in the market. 

It depends on the needs of customer that decides what they prefer and why.

To create a foothold in the market; you don't need to be number one, you should be the only one.

Remember to choose the category of your product wisely, and aim to be the leader in that category. 

CONCLUSION

Marketing isn't rocket science. Its the art, in which if you are passionate then you can make the best out of it. Digital marketing a growing era in which the impact varies from color, design, interaction, topic,etc. 

I hope I have been able to clear some concepts and myths about marketing. I will surely try to share the knowledge I have.  

Thank You!