When people say, “I work in marketing”, what exactly does that mean? And to the non-marketer, what do they think it means?
Here’s what wikipedia has to say:
“Marketing is the study and management of exchange relationships. Marketing is used to create, keep and satisfy the customer. With the customer as the focus of its activities, it can be concluded that Marketing is one of the premier components of Business Management – the other being innovation”.
So let’s break it down. The study and management of exchange relationships. This doesn’t start and end with a physical transaction i.e.: cash exchanged for goods or services. Exchange relationships refer to any type of transaction – from subscribing to a podcast, to having a preference over which brand of running shoes you prefer, and the associated “feelings” elicited when wearing the brand, talking about it, or having others admire it. This is about motivations.
When marketers talk about the customer, they are talking about motivations, insights, research and satisfaction – they are not influenced by emotions, or personal feelings and instead share a fact based perspective influenced by what they know about the customer. When non marketers talk about the customer, their perspectives are subject to greater interpretation based on their own personal preference.
This is not to say that people who work in marketing don’t have a personal opinion – they’re consumers too! Of course they have an opinion. The difference, is that the marketer will never argue over the colour of a hat in an add aimed at selling skis – well mostly never argue…we do die on some hills.
Motivations in marketing are no different from motivations in any other sense of the word. What would motivate a customer to transact – keeping in mind that “transaction” can mean many things. When we talk about motivations, we first need to understand what type of customer we’re marketing to. How old are they, gender, spending habits, annual income, what do they do with their spare time? And finally…Which channel is most likely to capture their attention (channels are simply a form of media – are we marketing through print, television, online, face to face, etc).
Understanding customer motivations allow organizations to build relationships with their target audiences – and those relationships are the foundation for transaction behaviour.
For readers spending any time on Instagram – you’ll see a completely different type of advertising through promoted posts, which capitalize on a combination of scrolling and impulse behaviour. And, in case you didn’t know, the type of promoted posts you are seeing, are directly correlated with your own online behaviour.
When we discuss innovation, we’re talking about ideas. Innovation is a subjective term that will likely vary by organization or individual. My POV is simple. Innovation involves positioning a product or service, in such a way that it stands apart from the competition even in cases where the product or service itself may not be entirely unique. Sometimes you have a real nugget of a product or service that is by definition innovative in a particular market – however, the real marketing happens when you can take something generic and position it in a unique and captivating way.
Clear yet? At the end of the day, I think of marketing as a combination of art and science. When I tell people that I work in marketing, I am telling them that I am in the business of human behaviour and motivations. That my job involves A/B testing, curated content based on audience, working with firms specializing in research and human behaviour, and even studying behavioural psychology in an effort to make fact based decisions and recommendations.
This is to say, marketers put a lot of careful thought into the work they do. So give em a break before going gang busters over the colour of that hat! Because if that’s your concern, you missed the point of the marketing (unless of course you sell hats).
Rebecca 