MARKETING
An Introduction to Marketing
Marketing, contrary to popular belief, is more than merely product advertising. Marketing as a corporate activity encompasses much more. At its most fundamental, it matches the products and services offered by a business with the people who desire to use them. In the end, profitability is ensured by matching products to customers.
Marketing is effective and dynamic. Although the specifics vary depending on the industry, but at its most fundamental level, marketing is how businesses connect with potential clients and convey the distinctive advantages of a product or service. It includes all of the actions businesses do to advertise, market, and deliver that product or service. By educating current and potential customers about the offering, the objective is to increase sales and create a loyal customer base. Marketing involves interacting with customers and meeting their requirements. The goal of marketing is to convey to customers and society the values and benefits of a product.
Marketing encompasses all of the efforts that a business undertakes to attract customers and maintain relationships with them. Writing thank you notes, promptly returning calls and emails, and scheduling coffee or dinner meetings with them are all examples of networking with potential or former customers that can be done as part of the job.
I am going to share some marketing facts with you that will help you develop an elementary marketing promotion. I say “elementary” because your marketing skills will always be “elementary” until you have a thorough understanding of psychology, history, marketing media, market research, demographic studies, and a plethora of other facts. Because of this, individuals who try to imitate the marketing strategies of other companies constantly fail. I’m stating this to educate you, the reader, to master the skill of marketing and professional sales.
Learn what the term “loss leader” means. A basic definition is a component of your product or service (must have value to the consumer) that is least valuable to you and your business’s bottom line that you can practically give away to attract new customers. There is always a lost leader in every business; simply think outside the box to find it.
Loss leader is the proper (conventional) marketing term for something offered at a loss in order to attract customers; nevertheless, I prefer to refer to this concept as the “lost leader”, because my goal is to encourage you to identify with the concept through the use of more positive vocabulary. “Loss” implies that something is no longer present, as when something is sold for a loss (a negative feeling); “lost” implies that something was squandered or not utilized.
I want you to focus on the areas of your business that have been “wasted and not taken advantage of”, rather than believing you must experience a “loss” in order to attract new customers. It is not my intention for you to sell something “at a loss” or for you to interpret this idea as a concept where you have to “lose” something in order to get something else, i.e., a trade.
This is a concept of finding potential resources that may have been “wasted or not taken advantage of” and maximizing their potential (positive feeling). You will “lose” nothing and you will gain additional customers, thus the term, “lost leader”.
Although this is a very basic introduction to marketing, these two concepts can make a huge difference in your business’ revenue. Your goal is to find a product and/or service which is/are underperforming or contribute very little to the business’s bottom line. An example of the Loss Leader is McDo’s toy with their happy meal. The toy, which is incredibly cheap to make, but is incredibly valuable to the child is the draw of the meal. The toy is the Loss Leader. It is given away as part of the meal. The marketer knows this little cheap toy, that probably cost one cent to make in China, will motivate children to drive their parents crazy until they take them to McDo to get a Happy Meal. Yet, when they get there, they barely touch their food and spend all of their time playing with their new toy. Meanwhile, the parents are stuck eating meals themselves because of that toy. Brilliant marketing!
An example of a Lost Leader is, businesses who sell services that have slow and busy times like a gym. Most gyms/health clubs are only busy early in the mornings and in the evenings after work. They are ghost towns during the day through the week and most of the time on weekends. These dead times are Lost Leaders. The business still has to pay the electric, water, payroll, lease, etc., but the business is not generating revenue during those times. These blocks of times are a gold mine for a good marketer. They can be used as hooks to grab the public’s attention with incredible deals.
Although I prefer the concept I coined decades ago, “Lost Leader”, both concepts are necessary tools in your marketing toolbox. Marketing is one of my favorite subjects so I will be adding to this section often.