Advertising agencies and consultancies have a vested interest in making marketing appear more complex than it is. Advertising agencies also have a vested interest in perpetuating the untruth that marketing and advertising are, essentially, the same thing.
Advertising is all about spreading a message or series of messages. Marketing, on the other hand, is about managing human behaviour, a process that not only involves more than advertising, but may not even involve advertising. A number of big brands such as Zara and Tesla have no advertising budget.
Marketing comprises four major elements – causing a behaviour to occur for the first time, the last time, more often, or less often. This may be demonstrated by a member of the target market:
- buying a brand for the first time
- stopping smoking
- eating at a restaurant more often
- drinking less
Marketing is all about causing one of these four behaviours to occur within your target market with the frequency required to achieve your commercial objectives.
Given that marketing is about managing the behaviour of members of your target market, it follows that the starting point in developing the optimal marketing strategy must be:
- clearly identify the target market
- clearly identify the desired behaviour
- clearly identify the most efficient way of causing that behaviour.
Furthermore, it is very often the case that advertising plays only a small role in causing the desired behaviour to occur. Consider:
- Advertising can make people aware, and possibly drive enquiry. It cannot make people buy. It will not ensure conversion.
- Advertising can contribute to the first sale, but generally has a much lesser impact on repeat purchase, and almost no impact on referrals.
Conversion, repeat business and referrals are all driven by the product, the supporting service, and the extent to which all three meet or exceed customer expectations.
Causing a preferred behaviour to occur with the frequency you require is not about spreading a message as much as it is about:
- understanding who your market is
- understanding your market better than your competitors
- understanding how to influence the desired behaviour efficiently.
This, in turn, highlights the importance of market research and consumer insights.
Contrary to popular belief, with tools such as Survey Monkey, and the wealth of data online, market research need not be expensive. It can involve minimal expenditure, provided you are willing to put in the time.
Consumer insights are among the most powerful tools available to 21st century marketers. They provide insights into ‘who does what’ and ‘why people do what they do’. These insights can be the key to understanding consumer behaviour.
Consumer insight research is being conducted constantly by universities. Most of it is available online. All you have to do is spend some time searching.
The points I am making here are: marketing is about managing the behaviour of your target market to achieve commercial outcomes; effective marketing need not involve advertising; effective marketing involves understanding consumers and the behaviour you want to manage; and understanding consumers is not as hard as you may think.
Relevant to this, my next article will address the dangers of relying on common sense and intuition – both of which are more expensive than you may think. Data is a wonderful thing, and when it is readily available, why not use it?
John Carlson, Adviser and Speaker, D. John Carlson Advisory
