Imperatives of Marketing

When opportunities are missed or lost to competitors, little do we realise it is because of poor or no marketing. In the current environment, marketing is absolutely essential for the success of a venture - be it for making profit or for the common good. When we fail to see the significance of marketing as a business function, we also fail to invest in to the infrastructure required for marketing.

When running a business, we place ads in the local newspaper, dropping flyers around the neighbourhood. These are often referred to as marketing. They are some of the activities we do in marketing but by themselves they don't make up the marketing of a business. To get marketing right, we need to see marketing as an essential business function, just like accounting. We may not know much about accounting but we soon learn what is needed. If learning is not possible, we would outsource the accounting tasks, because of the tax man. Wonder why we fail to attach the same imperative to marketing when the success of the business is dependent on it. This is so ironic – we do things when there is a stick but refuse, when it is a carrot.

To prove the imperative of marketing let me relate to you the famous Pepsi Challenge by McClure et al (2004). In this study, 67 respondents were given two separate taste-tests of a cola drink while their brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In the first test, respondents were asked to name the drink after tasting. Most of them said what they tasted was Pepsi. The brain scan showed activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, an area associated with rewards. In the second test, the brands were presented in their cans. Coca-Cola was observed to activate the lateral prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, the areas responsible for emotion and affect. Surprisingly no such activation was observed for Pepsi. The study revealed two brain systems at work when choosing a cola drink; one, based on sensory stimuli and the other on emotive stimuli. The system activated by emotive stimuli (lateral prefrontal cortex–hippocampus) seemed to generate a greater attraction to market offerings. This study provides compelling justification for marketing, in particular branding.

If you have not thought about branding for your business, talk to an expert soon.

More imperatives coming, return after a while or RSS : )