Marketing

Marketing is a powerful field that can easily mess with one’s head. Marketing can be defined as a strategy to communicate the value of a product or a service to the potential and existing customers. The earliest form of marketing known to us is the “word of mouth” since then marketing has been evolving which resulted in creating a “complete” concept.

In order to understand the fundamentals of marketing, it’s essential to start analyzing it from its earliest form. So, first comes the “word of mouth” also known as the “WOM”. The idea behind this strategy is to let consumers share their experiences and expectation about specific products. Though, the results aren’t necessarily good. For instance, the conversation between people may only leave positive or negative expectations about your product and if, somehow, the negative exceeds the positive, it can severely harm your business, which will lead to lowering the number of sales.

Though, today, marketing isn't only about word of mouth. It has become more diverse and persuasive that can completely change your perception. Due to the fact, that the aim of marketing is to increase product sales (only exception is the non-profit organizations), depending on the size of a firm and the product or service they sell, most of them use market segmentation. Market segmentation is when a company divides its target markets into pieces and only focuses on those who hold an interest in their product. In order to define your precise target markets, it’s essential to understand the fundamental factors. For example, age, gender, country, etc.

On the other hand, market segmentation isn’t a must. A lot of companies use intensive distribution and are one of the most successful brands today. Intensive distribution is when a firm ignores market segmentation and decides to supply their product to every market available. This way, your product can be found anywhere by anyone. Though, it is not as easy as it sounds. Intensive distribution is connected to high expenses and risks. Furthermore, it can’t be used for any product. Intensive distribution works best with products like cigarettes, soda and beverage because the key success factor for these products is distribution, itself. For instance, cigarettes can be found anywhere hotels, bars, clubs, groceries, shops and supermarkets. The reason why the manufacturers risk using intensive distribution is because of the high demand. Another disadvantage is the retailers. Considering that your products will be sold across the globe, it is highly possible that the retailers may steal or lie to you, and it can badly affect your profits.

What iss more, advertising is an inseparable part of marketing. But, due to quality advertising being costly, not everyone can afford it. So, we’ll discuss a cost-effective way to effectively advertise. This amazingly good strategy is known as grassroots marketing. Grassroots marketing is different from monotonous advertising system that covers a large audience. Grassroots marketing concentrates on a small, niche audience, hoping that, with the word of mouth, it’ll go viral. What’s unique about grassroots marketing is that giants like Coca-Cola, Samsung and Nike frequently use it, which proves its effectiveness.

Despite all the things we’ve mentioned, in order to run a successful marketing campaign, it’s important to define the structure of your organization. For example, if you are in the B2C industry, which is the most common field for multi brand companies, compared to B2B, it values market segmentation. Consequently, it’s crucial to know your industry well because it’s likely for you to make an unconscious mistake. Furthermore, for every industry, certain strategies work better. For example, if you’re in the B2C industry, using the multi-brand strategy would be highly effective. The multi-brand strategy carries several advantages like leaving less shelf space for competitors and obtaining more for you, effectively using brand-switchers, who love to experiment with different brands, competition between managers and if the initial business succeeds, it can develop a second brand without noticeable expenses, through the franchise. Though, it also carries some risks, for example, cannibalization between brands, confusion caused by overlapping segments that will result in brand switching, the public image of your brand may become profit oriented, rather than the customer, failure due to poor management and failure from wrong business choices. But don’t get scared, many companies have succeeded using this very same strategy. For instance, FedEx, Virgin Group Ltd. and Unilever. But, all three of them use different multi-brand strategies.

1. FedEx and Virgin Group – Both of them operate as a single firm with several branches. For example, FedEx Services, FedEx Express, FedEx Home Delivery, Virgin Digital, Virgin Studios, Virgin Health Bank, etc. So, if one of the branches fails, the overall image of the company will collapse.

2. Unilever – Unlike FedEx and Virgin Group, Unilever operates differently. It might shock you, but Unilever is the brand behind giants like Dove, AXE, Lipton, Sunlight, REDROSE, etc. Consequently, if one of the branches fails, it won’t hurt the “mastermind” also known as Unilever.

Furthermore, the 21st century has introduced a new “fruit” that became a game changer in the world of marketing. The new “fruit” also known as the social media gave us a whole bunch of new opportunities, where we own the possibility to reach almost 85% of the world’s population. As soon as the new concept was introduced, every company, small or big, is desperately trying to increase their brand’s awareness and generate profit. Consequently, we can say that, today, social media is the best place to advertise our companies, reach potential and existing customers and strengthen relationships with the audience.

In conclusion, marketing is the key for your business to succeed. Without the elements of marketing, it’s impossible for a company to progress and grow. In other words, due to the fierce competition of the 21st century, it’s essential to take advantage from any resource available to us and marketing is surely on the list. What iss more important, registering and progressing our company's social media profiles can be considered as every firm's number one priority.