1 intro, foundational considerations

What is marketing? 

• Having a good or service at the right price, distributed to the right people, and promoted across all mediums 

  • Meeting needs profitably though art (visuals, ads) and science (data, metrics)

The marketing perspective 

• Most important is the consumer 

• We control using the green factors 

• But the blue is what we have to accommodate for

Good example of identifying and meeting needs 

“A diamond is forever”

• Persuades customer to splurge on an expensive ring because you might as well do it once and do it right

Bad example of identifying and meeting needs

Domino’s 30 minutes or free

• Customer assumes the food will be made so quick it’s poor quality, and the driver will drive more recklessly

What makes it bad

• Negative brand association

• Overpromising 

• Perception 

• Improper research

High level: Marketing plans and decision making

Should we change our OG/classic formula and transform our whole brand? 

• *Goal is to be customer focused instead of product or sales focused 

Low level: Marketing plans and decision making

How quickly should we deliver our pizzas? 

• *Goal is to be customer focused instead of product or sales focused 

Our framework

5 C’s of Marketing

1. Customers–company

• foundational considerations

  • Goals

  • Core competencies and strategic assets 

  • Unique offerings compared to competition 

  • Customer needs and profitability 

  • Stakeholders

• Acquisitional and retention strategies 

2. Collaborators 

• Stakeholders, supplies, community, government, partnerships, investors, agencies, market researchers, retailers 

3. Competitors

• Direct and indirect 

3. Climate/context 

• A situational analysis of the marketing environment 

STP–how to structure

• To whom are marketing activities aimed at?

• What is the brand perception or positioning in the market?

• What are the relevant customer segments?

• Which segments should we target?

• What do customers in those segments currently believe?

• What do we want them to believe?

• What do we need to say and do to shift their beliefs?

Execution—putting it all together, public-facing

4 P’s

1. product service

2. price

3. place

4. promotion

• How do we articulate our positioning?

• How do we implement our strategy?

4 Foundational Questions

1. What customer needs are we trying to fulfill? 

2. Is there something we’re uniquely good at? 

3. What’s our brand architecture?

4. What are our goals?

What customer needs are we trying to fulfill? 

Most companies have a tendency to define its business based on products rather than benefits → marketing myopia

• Consider competitors

  • Direct and indirect 

• Questions to ask

  • Who are we? What are we uniquely good at? What are we trying to achieve? 

    • Netflix vs. other options that help us unwind

Marketing myopia

• Trying to answer the question of what the customer really needs 

• “Myopic”

  • The product, the present, not the future 

• EX: Drill is actually selling ¼ inch holes 

Is there something we’re uniquely good at? 

• Companies have many competencies (skills)

• Core competencies are skills that are difficult for competitors to imitate

• An input (not an output) that generates strategic assets (an org’s vital physical, technology, human resources), which in turn solves customers problems via benefits (products)

  • Caveats:

    • Some strategic assets are a consequence of core competencies and some aren’t (ex: patents that Google buys from IBM)

Core competencies

• Skills that are difficult for competitors to imitate

• A competitive advantage/differentiator 

  • EX: anyone can make tape, but 3M has unique insight into adhesives, which opens many doors for their company (expanding to bandaids, etc.)

• Some companies don’t have CC’s or don’t know what they are, but all would benefit from understanding its power

Most competitive advantages don’t last forever 

• Customers need change

• Company offerings aren’t clear

• Company fails to reinvest or adapt

  • EX: covid: some companies took advantage of it and started branching their company into producing hand sanitizers

• Business/marketing environment changes

Brand

• Name, term, symbol, design, or combo intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition 

  • Visual (logo) and non-visual (tone, promise)

Brand architecture

• The relationship between different brands within a company’s portfolio, part of brand strategy

• The organizational structure of a company’s portfolio of brands 

  • Multiple brands and locations → 3M

  • Single brand and one location → Vespas-Italy, Pizza Bobs-AA

Distinct branding–house of brands (common branding architectures)

• Companies who offer several products with distinct meanings, names, and logos targeted to different audiences

  • EX: Unilever: hides their logo on the back of products, not very visible

• They want to keep the different personalities, but their brand looks disorganized and inconsistent

  • EX: (axe, klondike, slim fast) 

Umbrella branding–branded house (common branding architectures)

• Companies who use a branded house strategy and product extensions where logo is prominent 

  • EX: Nike: bold, visible logo

    • Deep product lines, wide product variety 

    • Result of consumer trust

• Tradeoff

  • They aren’t very flexible and damage from product failures can be quite high 

Hybrid branding (common branding architectures)

• Companies who use a combination of Distinct and Umbrella 

  • BMW: distinct branding, performance, luxury, BUT they also own Mini-Cooper, which is affordable, fun

  • Versace: bought Michael Kors, each brand is still known, they’ll reach more customers bc people will still buy MK. Was risky for Versace 

  • Paypal: owns Venmo, already so distinct, no point in combining

Category extension (brand extensions)

product width

• Category changes, shows width 

• Swiss: watches, perfume

Product line extensions (brand extensions)

• Category does not change, shows depth 

  • Law and order: same show but different specialty series

  • Doritos: same chip but different flavors

Branded variants

• Accommodating differing price sensitivities via cheaper versions or even offerings at outlets 

Benefits of brand extensions 

• Alleviate consumer boredom

• Stay in the family

• Pricing breadth–different willingness to pay

• Lower costs 

  • Need to create awareness of new product, but not brand

  • Reduced costs: production/packaging/mkt/research 

  • $30M to launch a brand, or $5M for an extension 

• Capitalize on placebo 

• Less risk of failure

What are our goals?

• 2 purposes 

  • Simplify decision making

  • Create performance benchmarks

• For goals to be effective, they must be: 

  • Prioritized

  • Quantified

  • Realistic

  • Includes a temporal benchmark

  • Internally consistent

• Beware of overly ambitious goals

  • They can stimulate dishonesty