Overview of Marketing
"Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably."
-The official academic definition from CIM (The Chartered Institute of Marketing).
-The official academic definition from CIM (The Chartered Institute of Marketing).
It is important to understand the consumer
buying decision process before understanding what marketing is supposed to do. This process has the following steps:
- Need Identification
- Information Search
- Evaluation of Alternatives
- Purchase Decision
- Post-purchase Behavior
In every stage of the decision process a marketer has to
establish the brand/product. The
communication model of AIDA is important.
- Attention
- Interest
- Desire
- Action
Today’s customer can be influenced not only via Above the
Line (ATL) Marketing and Below the Line (BTL) Marketing but what is known as
Through the Line (TTL) marketing which brings an interactive form of
communication. The online world plays a big role in this aspect.
Websites, Social Media, Search Engines, e-mails and online advertising
play a big role in helping in the consumer buying process whether it is by
creating a need or to support any stage of evaluation/research resulting in a
call to action.
Need for Accountability
Marketers are in general having been seen at the other extreme
end of accountants as they are known to be big spenders and cost centers.
Whilst in some companies Sales & Marketing is handled by the same team, it
may require to be two independent teams working together to achieve a common
goal. Marketers are known to hate
numbers and to answer questions related to accountability specially as they
tend to spend in areas where Return on Investment (ROI) cannot be determined.
Traditional advertising
will mostly talk of Reach, Circulation, Mind share, Viewership, Listenership,
etc… which is mostly based on representative research questioning the accuracy
of the measures. This ambiguity and the return on advertising which is linked
with sales cannot be always attributed towards marketing effort as external
factors such as economy, business environment, competitor action, fiscal
policy, etc…
However, with wafer thin margins and high costs in marketing
activities, many companies have put restrictions and measures on Marketing
expenses. Continuous struggle of efficiency and effectiveness has not only put pressure
on marketers but also, created a need for monitoring tools.
The common question asked from Marketers is "How do you justify your Advertising spend?" This question can be now answered by Marketing Automation.
Some of the areas Marketing Automation impacts:
Marketing Automation
The common question asked from Marketers is "How do you justify your Advertising spend?" This question can be now answered by Marketing Automation.Some of the areas Marketing Automation impacts:
- Campaign Management
- Landing pages and web analytics
- CRM Integration
- Email Marketing
- Social Marketing
- Social Listening
- Lead Generation
- Lead Scoring
- Marketing Analytics
- Customer Life Cycle Management
Source: http://41.media.tumblr.com/a810fafd27183a441f95aeaa53005961/tumblr_inline_nubqhl7JYK1qf1f17_540.jpg
In essence Marketing Automation provides the required process to influence the Consumer Buying Decision Process for creating Attention, Interest, Desire & Action (AIDA).
6 comments:
Sharing this with few others Yasas. Thanks
Thank you Hansaka! Hope you liked it?
Hi Yasas. your comments are helping us to change the view to understanding the situation as front line marketing operation which we are in. I will share this with my team members. Thanks,
Thanks Chandima! Please feel free to share with anyone who could benefit!
Yasas, could you specify how to promote TTL marketing to a management of traditional company, who know only about ATL & BTL campaigns? I see a big gap there, which prevents the average management teams from taking the TTL marketing benefits such as social media marketing.
Dear Uditha, This is a very valid and important question. I guess this is the challenge most of the marketers face today. The answer is simple the question to ask is show ROI on your advertising. This can be only justified by TTL. Since, not only clicks can be tracked but also follow-up linked with forms are possible.
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