Rules of Marketing

Rules of Marketing: Old Vs. New

(The following article also addresses public relations -- the opinions in the article apply to both marketing and public relations. Note that many people would assert that public relations is a form of outbound marketing.)
Copyright Lisa Chapman

What is Marketing? What is PR?

You’ve likely heard it before – in the digital world, “The lines have blurred between Marketing and PR.”
What does that mean? How have the lines blurred? In order to answer these questions, let’s take a look at the OLD versus the NEW rules of Marketing, as proposed by David Meerman Scott in his bestselling book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR.

The OLD Rules of Marketing

The message was delivered ONE-WAY, and CREATIVITY was the secret sauce that commanded the audience’s attention. Among the fundamental concepts of the OLD marketing paradigm:

• Advertising was the core tool
• The advertising message was generally crafted to appeal to the masses
• Advertising INTERRUPTED the audience with a one-way message
• Advertising engaged campaigns for a defined time period
• Creators focused on creativity – and award-winning campaigns
• Advertising and PR were different specialties, run by different people

The OLD Rules of PR

The ultimate goal: Spin a press release to capture reporters’ attention, then get a clip of the story, to show that the message was viewed by the audience.

• Media comprised the toolbox, in order to get the message out
• A press release was the core tool
• Only significant news commanded the attention of the media
• It was all in “the spin” (or HYPE!)
• Quotes from third parties were an important element of a press release
• Press releases were meaningless unless a reporter decided that it was worthy of a story

The NEW Rules of Marketing and PR

Since the internet is now one huge publisher, ANYONE can learn how to create compelling messages and publish them. Getting found online is the science and art. A few of the new rules include:

• People don’t want “spin” – they want authenticity
• People don’t want to be interrupted anymore (it’s now called SPAM)
• People don’t want to be ‘told’ (push marketing), they want to be heard
• People want VALUE (content), which develops relationship and trust
• Marketing and PR can reach niche audiences online in a wider variety of ways
• Content is KING, and stays online, with no end to the campaign

The New TOOLS of Marketing and PR

It’s no longer TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, etc. Meaningful, valuable CONTENT is the vehicle that captures audiences’ attention. It is now found on:

• Websites
• Blogs
• Microblogs (Tweets)
• Social Media platforms (Facebook.com, Myspace.com, etc)
• Article Directories
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Etc, etc etc!
  

Makin’ the Marketing Strategy Happen!

Copyright Tove Rasmussen
Implementing a marketing strategy is a multi-faceted activity. A good marketing strategy is driven by a clear, simple positioning statement. This makes it clear to your employees and market, where the company is superior to the competition. The marketing strategy encompasses the product or service offering, pricing, promotion and distribution – or delivery of the product or service to your customers.
So, the marketing strategy is all-encompassing. It drives product features, time from order to delivery, logistics, research and development, customer services — in short, it drives what is key for all facets of the business.
Consequently, implementing a marketing strategy involves so much more than marketing. It involves the whole company.
How you implement the marketing strategy depends who you are in the organization. Are you the president or the marketing director? If the organization has developed a marketing strategy, both need to be aligned with the strategy, on-board and enthusiastic.
The implementation of the marketing strategy can begin with the development of the marketing strategy. The organization can be involved or informed of the status of the development of the strategy. The input of operations, regulatory and sales can be part of the information that is used to develop the strategy.
Or the strategy can be developed by the management team, and rolled out to the company once it is completed. The extent to which each approach works, depends a lot on the issues involved with the strategy development, the culture of the company, and the buy-in to the plan by the company as a whole.
If, for example, operations was asked for an opinion, it is very important to close the loop, and let operations know what happened to the input. How it was used in developing the plan and, if possible, how the input affected the final strategy that was developed.
If the plan is being rolled out with no input, then it is critical for the department heads to consider the expected response from their teams, and to ensure the potential issues will be addressed. If unexpected issues are raised, it is critical to research these issues and respond to them. However, the key is to effectively demonstrate how the plan is in the interest of each department, in particular, the growth of the company. Information that provides confidence in this result is essential to provide, and an inclusive, enthusiastic, confident tenor of the meeting is important.
However, it is much more than one roll out meeting, or several roll out meetings. Implementation includes the informal discussions in the hall, during chance encounters, in regular meetings. People will absorb the information, and come up with excellent questions that need to be taken into account.
There is, of course, the formal implementation of the strategy as well. It will translate into objectives for performance evaluations, possibly organization shifts and changes.
As the company moves through the changes, focus on gaining some small wins first. This increases confidence in the new strategy and increases momentum. Keep it forefront in the company, stay positive and flexible.

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Basics -- and Misunderstandings -- About Marketing

Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD

What is Marketing?

Before you learn more about marketing in the many links later on below topic, you should first understand what marketing is, because the topic is so often misunderstood. Marketing is the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you're continuing to meet the needs of your customers and are getting appropriate value in return.

How Marketing is So Misunderstood

Far too often, organizations try to develop a product to meet customers’ needs without ever really verifying what the customers wanted in the first place. Instead, those organizations make a strenuous effort to “sell” the product through rigorous, ongoing advertising, promotions and publicity -- through "outbound" marketing. These organizations may have built a beautiful ladder – but it may be entirely on the wrong roof! Far too often, that lesson comes from painful experience.
Experienced organizations have learned that it is not their opinion that matters most regarding whether their product is needed or not. The opinion that matters most is that of the customers. These organizations have learned that they might not know what they don't know about their customers. That precious knowledge about the customers comes from "inbound" marketing -- through market research to clarify customers' needs and what they are willing to do to get those needs met. If the inbound marketing is done well, the outbound marketing is particularly easy -- and effective.

Inbound Marketing Includes Market Research to Find Out:

1. What specific groups of potential customers/clients (markets) might have which specific needs (nonprofits often already have a very clear community need in mind when starting out with a new program -- however, the emerging practice of nonprofit business development, or earned income development, often starts by researching a broad group of clients to identify new opportunities for programs)
2. How those needs might be met for each group (or target market), which suggests how a product might be designed to meet the need (nonprofits might think in terms of outcomes, or changes, to accomplish among the groups of clients in order to meet the needs)
3. How each of the target markets might choose to access the product, etc. (its "packaging")
4. How much the customers/clients might be willing pay and how (pricing analysis)
5. Who the competitors are (competitor analysis)
6. How to design and describe the product such that customers/clients will buy from the organization, rather than from its competitors (its unique value proposition)
7. How the product should be identified -- its personality -- to be most identifiable (its naming and branding)

Outbound Marketing Includes:

1. Advertising and promotions (focused on the product)
2. Sales
3. Public and media relations (focused on the entire organization)
4. Customer service
5. Customer satisfaction

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Membuat Event Marketing Yang Baik

Dengan begitu massalnya komunikasi yang dilakukan melalui berbagai media massa, para masyarakat sebagai customer dari sebuah produk semakin merasa jenuh dan keterbatasan memorinya semakin membuat sulit mengingat keragaman produk, brand berikut dengan masing-masing pembedanya. Dalam strategi pemasaran sekarang EM dan MPR menjadi menjamur untuk mengantisipasi kejenuhan tersebut. EM yang kita ketahui sebagai Event marketing dan MPR sebagai Marketing Public Relations menjadi ujung tombak dalam berkomunikasi secara langsung dengan customer, karena hubungan yang terjadi adalah interaktif dan mendapatkan feedback langsung dari para customer, baik itu hal yang positif maupun negatif. Cara pengukurannya pun lebih mudah karena langsung terlihat respon yang dihasilkan dari para customer.

Event Marketing yang kian menjamur tidak dilakukan dengan sembarangan karena memakan biaya dan tenaga yang cukup besar, sehingga dalam proses perencanaannya sebisa mungkin matang dan tepat sasaran. Karena result dari sebuah EM akan sangat menentukan kredibilitas brand, hasil yang baik akan dengan cepat mengangkat popularitas brand dan hasil yang buruk akan membuat brand langsung terjun bebas di depan mata para customer.

Berikut di bawah ini beberapa pertimbangan yang perlu dipikirkan dalam perencanaan sebuah EM untuk mendapatkan hasil dan feedback yang maksimal.

1. The publicitySebuah event harus mengandung nilai berita/publisitas. Hal ini tidak lain untuk menarik word of mouth dan liputan/penjualan berita yang lebih mudah ke berbagai media. Nilai publisitas ini akan semakin lama menurun pada sebuah konsep event yang diulang, dalam artian kalau dulu sebuah event yang masuk MURI dianggap wahh.. skarang hanya akan mendatangkan ohh… karena semakin lama semakin banyak event yang masuk ke MURI, atau kalau dulu sebuah event dengan hadiah BMW sangat digandrungi orang, sekarang menjadi biasa saja karena banyak event yang melakukan hal tersebut. Nilai publisitas dapat diangkat dari ide konsep yang fresh dan mengundang rasa ingin tahu serta yang terpenting adalah ketertarikan para target pasarnya.

2. Audiensnya adalah the target market
Kembali lagi pada tujuan diadakannya EM adalah pada akhirnya menjual produk atau mengangkat brand di mata konsumennya, maka para audies yang turut serta dalam event tersebut mutlak harus para target marketnya. Audiens ini bisa berkembang, antara lain mengarah pula kepada para pemberi masukan dalam membeli produk kepada para target pasar, atau orang-orang yang dekat dengan target pasar. Seperti contohnya mobil Kijang mengadakan event yang melibatkan seluruh anggota keluarga, sebenarnya target pasar utamanya adalah para ayah, tetapi ibu dan anak-anak adalah para pemberi masukan dalam membuat keputusan membeli mobil.

3. Deep connection between product and eventAdanya hubungan antara produk dan event sangat penting untuk mengangkat positioning dari brand itu sendiri, yang paling simple misalnya Rinso mengadakan lomba bagi para anak-anak untuk bermain di tanah, lumpur, dll. Hal ini tidak lain untuk mengangkat positioning Rinso yang menjamin bahwa para ibu tidak perlu khawatir, karena bajunya akan bersih dicuci kembali dengan Rinso. Event yang tidak mengangkat aktivitas yang berhubungan dengan produk akan menjadi wasting dan tujuan akhirnya akan sulit dicapai.

4. Use the promotion dan yang terakhir tapi sama pentingnya dengan keseluruhan proses konsep sebelumnya adalah komunikasi yang tepat sasaran dari event tersebut. Jangan sampai konsep event yang sudah sebegitu baiknya, tidak sampai di telinga para audiensnya. EM tidak akan menjadi sukses seperti yang telah direncanakan.

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Social Media Semakin Berkibar Setiap Tahunnya

Corporate Image Award 2011 di Ritz Carlton Mega Kuningan, Jakarta, Rabu (8/6) malam

MARKETING, Jakarta – Social Media semakin berkibar di tahun 2011 sebagai media alternatif bagi perusahaan yang akan membangun merek produk atau citra perusahaan yang kuat. Perusahaan-perusahaan global sudah mulai menyadari hal ini dan melakukan perencanaan detil untuk menggunakan kekuatan social media guna membangun citra perusahaan.

“Kemampuan social media dalam menyebarkan informasi yang sangat cepat karena proses viral sangat mencengangkan. Ini jelas membawa tantangan baru bagi setiap perusahaan. Pimpinan puncak memerlukan mind-set yang baru menghadapi hal ini,” ungkap Handi Irawan, Chairmain Frontier consulting Group dalam presentasinya di malam penghargaan Corporate Image Award 2011 yang berlangsung di Hotel Ritz Carlton, Mega Kuningan Jakarta, Rabu (8/6) malam.

Dijelaskan, hasil survei Corporate Image Index tahun 2011 dari Frontier Consulting Group menunjukan fenomena ini. Saat ini, masyarakat semakin memiliki banyak informasi. Mereka semakin mudah mendapatkan informasi, terutama melalui media digital seperti Facebook, You Tube dan Twitter. Sepanjang tahun 2010 hingga kuatal pertama tahun 2011 ini, masyarakat mulai memiliki persepsi yang berbeda terhadap citra perusahaan-perusahaan yang beroperasi di Indonesia.

Menurutnya, kehebatan social media adalah kemampuan pelanggan yang terlibat aktif dalam membuat content. Proses seperti ini, biasanya disebut dengan customer generated content. Proses seperti ini, biasanya disebut dengan customer generated content. Pada tahapan ini, perusahaan mulai kehilangan kendali terhadap media. Namun disisi lain, perusahaan memiliki kesempatan untuk lebih melibatkan pelanggan dan menggunakan pelanggan menjadi endorser yang positif.

“Bagi para CEO, pesannya jelas. Perusahaan harus membangun budaya untuk semakin terbuka dan semakin dekat dengan para pelanggannya. Social media akan membuat perusahaan semakin transparan dan mudah dimonitor,” paparnya. (Harry Tanoso/Majalah MARKETING)

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TIGA HAL YANG HARUS DI PERHATIKAN SALES MARKETING

Beberapa hari yang lalu saya mengikuti “KIA Sales Gathering”, acara rutin yang selalu diadakan manajemen Kia Mobil Indonesia untuk menunjang dan mensupport pasukan salesnya mulai dari level yang paling bawah sampai level manajerial. Ada beberapa hal yang menarik yang perlu saya catat yang berhubungan dengan kia secara khusus dan berhubungan dengan marketing secara umum yang disampaikan oleh Direktur marketing PT KIA Mobil Indonesia, Hartanto Sukmono.
Pertama, Tiga hal yang harus dipahami seorang sales yang disingkat dengan 3 C yaitu Customer, Competitor dan Company. Ada baiknya tiga hal untuk dibahas dalam posting-posting selanjutnya dengan kategori tersendiri. Bagaimana mencari dan memahami kebutuhan customer prospek di tahun 2011. Produk apa saja dari kompetitor dan saingan kita pada tahun 2011. Apa saja pencapaian dan perkembangan company pada tahun lalu, dan mau apa serta bagaimana ke depannya untuk mengulang sukses 2010 dengan menggandakannya 2 kali lipat.
Kedua, meningkatnya penjualan mobil kia secara khusus pada tahun 2010 sehingga “dapat menduduki 10 besar jajaran dominasi merek Jepang. Ini prestasi tersendiri karena baru Kia yang bisa melakukannya,” ujar Hartanto Sukmono.  Penjualan KIA di tahun 2010  tembus pada angka 6.500 unit, naik hampir 100% dari penjualan tahun 2009, melampaui persentase pencapaian penjualan mobil nasional di Indonesia yang mencapai hampir 75% .
Selanjutnya, Apa kabar 2011? “KIA 12.000 Yes“. Inilah tema sentral yang dicanangkan manajemen KIA Mobil Indonesia dalam target pencapaiannya di tahun 2011. Inilah optimesme pasukan sales Kia Mobil Indonesia yang didukung oleh perbaikan sistem Remunerasi Gaji, Point Insentive dan kesejahteraan. “KIA adalah tempat yang tepat untuk berkarir”. Beliau meyakinkan

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