What is Marketing?
Have you ever roamed around a girl in your teenage? Like you make yourself visible near her house or bus stop, sometimes at tuition she visits or try to sit near her bench, at an angle where she can see you. Why do we do that? Does every time you try a girl, will that end up in a successful deal? definitely not. But why do we still make sure that you’re in her vicinity?.
We use a colloquial word called “Line veyyatam” in Telugu and it has different colloquial terms in all languages. “Flirting” is different from this phenomenon as in flirting you have the opportunity to talk, but in lining, you don’t. Now let’s not enter into the vocabulary stuff, but let me simplify it. Here a boy is trying to make himself visible to a girl which means in case if she is in desire or need or interested in having a boyfriend, She “may” consider him. As his face got registered in her mind. That’s what exactly Marketing is.
Nowadays people mix up Marketing, Sales, Business development as one and approach me with projects. I always try to explain them in simple terms as
Marketing — Visibility.
Sales — Conversion.
Business Development — Expansion.
But many companies, tend to mix up three of them. For example, Byjus hire candidates in the name of “Business development managers” and make them sell Tabs. Though the name looks fancy, the JD is no match to the designation mentioned. It's a mere gimmick to attract a student to join a position instead of mentioning the designation as “sales boy”.
Then what exactly “Marketing” does? , why do we need marketing. Let me take an example of the famous Mr.Kiran of Lalitha jewellery. He was appearing on TV, Newspaper, Events everywhere for about 3 months. You can see his Ad for every 5 minutes in all programmes and channels. People at a point got irritated and started making memes about him. But now let me ask you a few questions.
He would have spent crores of rupees on Ads. Will everyone buy jewellery in his shop, just because they have seen his Ad?. Definitely ‘No’. But what happens in the process is, people minds get registered with the name “Lalitha Jewellery” which they definitely consider an option when they really want to buy gold. Which means Marketing is Mindmapping.
The main mistake I have observed in many budding entrepreneurs is, they are ready to spend lakhs on the product, but their budget for marketing will be zero or sometimes just a few hundred bucks. Many people even get confused regarding the difference between Sales and Marketing. Marketing is one of the sumptuous department in all organizations. Because it is the one which makes people know that you exist. Reaching millions of people isn’t an easy task. Whether you provide a service or produce a good, in the end, people should know that such a thing exists.
Even if you spend say Rs.10 to reach a single person, just imagine how much should be your budget to reach only people of Hyderabad city? If that is the case just imagine about pan India. There are many platforms like Newspapers, TV, Youtube influencers, Social media, Boardings, Songs, Flashmob, Auto ads etc. But all we need is the right strategy and perfect budget planning.
Secondly, marketing isn't a one day or one month project. Marketing is a parallel process, until your product exists marketing should also exist. Every day you should keep reminding people that you do exist. So, when they are in dire need they should choose you. For example, everyone in India had a strong impression that Coconut oil means “Parachute” which means they have done their work better and captured a strong market share in Indian market long back. So, why do we still see their Ads? because they clearly know until they are in the market, they should make people know that they exist.
People also come up with questions like, my product is so good I don't need marketing or just posting daily on social media is marketing or running an Ad is marketing. But for me, Marketing is mass communication, communicating with the world and creating a strong impression in their minds.
“A product may be sold without marketing, but a fortune can be made only with marketing” — Swaroop.