Welcome to Marketing 101!
This is the first in a series of
about some of the basics of marketing. The series is designed for
everyone – whether you’re already a social media smartypants or you’re
working on building your blog, your brand, or your business; whether
you need to know more about all the marketers approaching you about
your blog, or you’re just curious about the marketing jargon flying
around the internet and the stories behind those crazy companies who
try to sell you stuff.
To help set the stage, let me tell you
a bit about my background. I received an MBA from the Ross School of
Business at The University of Michigan and have worked in marketing for
more than a decade including for companies like Kraft Foods and
Campbell's Soup. Many of my examples will be from the world of Consumer
Packaged Goods (CPG) or, in other words, stuff you can buy in a grocery
store. Both because that's a marketing world I know well and because we
have all shopped in a grocery store, so such examples should be easy to
grok.
I hope you'll all jump in and add your perspective,
understanding and questions. I have a set of topics planned but I would
love to cover the topics and questions you have. So with that, let's
get started!
What is Marketing?
The exchange of information between buyers and sellersI
wear shoes. I like cute, functional shoes. If all the people who make
and sell shoes never told me about their shoes, I would be frustrated
and barefoot. I really hate going barefoot, so I’m happy to learn about
their shoes. But as much as I hate going barefoot, I also hate ugly,
painful shoes. I'm not going to continue to buy ugly shoes that hurt my
feet. If I tell the people who make and sell the shoes what I think is
cute, and functional -- what I would gladly pay for -- the shoe
manufacturers are happy because ultimately they can offer shoes that
people like me are happy to buy.
Sellers gather
information from buyers and develop goods and services. They
communicate what they have to sell, and the benefits of their products
(which is an umbrella term for goods, services, ideas, etc...), to
potential buyers. Buyers then exchange money or other forms of payment
for products from sellers.
This system of communication
–- the exchange of information to facilitate the trading of products
for payment (which can be money, credit, time, labor, attention,
etc...) -- is marketing. As you can see, when done well it is a win-win
for both buyers and sellers.
Who Are The Buyers?
Customers and Consumers
You'll
frequently see the terms "consumer" and "customer" bandied about, often
used interchangeably. From my CPG perspective, there is a clear
distinction. A manufacturer sells the goods they produce to a grocery
store. Grocery stores are therefore their customers. Grocery stores
however don't use the products that the manufacturers make. The people
who do are the consumers (or, in tech terms, sometimes referred to as
"end users") of the manufacturer's products. In this equation the
manufacturer's consumers would be the grocery store's customers. Got
that? Customers pay you for goods and services, consumers use goods and
services. And sometimes they are one in the same.
Not
everyone makes that distinction, however. Social media types in
particular seem to have a deep distaste for the word "consumer" so
customer is a safer choice to use when you're having a social media
conversation. But, if you are getting pitched by or want to work with
or consult for a company that does use this terminology (and many, if
not most, of the companies who approach you do) it is important that
you understand this fundamental difference.
Who Are The Sellers?
B2C and B2B
Manufacturers
who sell to retailers and whose products are used by consumers have
different ways of marketing to customers and consumers. When they
approach you to feature, advertise or promote something on your blog,
they are marketing to consumers. The shorthand lingo for this is B2C or
Business-to-Consumer.
Another example of B2C is television
advertising of grocery store items. Manufacturers hire advertising
agencies to create the ads and pay for the time to air them even though
consumers don't buy products directly from them. However, by letting
consumers know about the products they make, consumers will go to
grocery stores and purchase them. This means then that grocery stores
have to stock their shelves by buying the products from the
manufacturers. Therefore B2C is a major and crucial component of a CPG
marketing strategy.
B2B is another term you frequently see. An example of Business-to-Business marketing is shown on the show
The Office. The fictional
Dunder Mifflin
sells paper to business customers not to individual consumers. Another
example might be companies that manufacture copiers and printers. The
manufacturer of copiers would use B2B marketing for selling to offices
and would use B2C marketing for individual printers for home use.
Why Should Bloggers Or Anybody Else Care About Marketing
Let
me give an example that can help you think about where you might fit in
this marketing system as a blogger. Not all payments have to come in
the form of cold hard cash. As a blogger you are selling your words and
you might hope to be rewarded in the form of readers. You can then
market yourself by providing information about your product, soliciting
feedback from your readers and improving your product by writing more
of what they want to read and less of what they don't.
Even
if you aren't a blogger, we all market ourselves in some way in many
situations. And we can be better and smarter as consumers and help
marketers do a better job of communicating with us and providing the
information we need and want when we understand the process.
____
In this series I am going to primarily focus on B2C marketing and will generally use the term consumers.
Now
that we are on to the same page with our lingo we are ready to go! Let
me know what you'd like to learn and I'll do my best to help.
A few smart marketing blogs:
Susan Getgood -
Marketing RoadmapsToby Bloomberg - Diva Marketing Blog
Nancy Friedman -
FritinancyCross posted at BlogHer.
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