Marketing is like seasoning. The basics
I won’t open anything new for experienced marketers, but I’ll try to explain the basics of marketing by analogy with the kitchen. As they say, you won’t spoil the porridge with butter, which can not be said about seasoning. Seasoning can make food tasteless to inedible, or it can reveal all the shades of taste, so even the most ordinary dish will look like a culinary masterpiece. The same goes for marketing.
A good housewife, like a good cook, always knows who she will cook for. And, accordingly, makes a menu of consumer preferences. If you know that in an hour or two a hungry friend will come to visit you, who, for example, does not like onions and has lactose intolerance, it is unlikely that you will prepare cheese and onion soup for his arrival. In business, in the same way, you should know who your consumer is and prepare a dish taking into account his taste and his preferences. The template phrase about “The path to the heart of a man” can be easily interpreted as “The path to the heart of the consumer lies through what exactly and how you offer him”.
When a noisy company goes on a hike, finally makes an evening halt and cooks a kuesh on a lighted fire, fries sausages and starts eating, for some reason this simple food seems very tasty. Why? After all, the kulesh is overloaded, the sausages are not roasted. Everything is very simple - the same rules apply in the forest as in the market jungle.
“That's why I don’t like cats.”
Before we start cooking, we must know and / or understand the recipe. What in what quantity, what quality, in what sequence and most importantly how to cook. We have to have all the ingredients ready. Nobody starts to cook kebabs in nature when meat has not yet been bought. Before starting your business, think about what you will need for it and how quickly you can organize it. Pay attention to obvious things, such as: time, delays, cost, competition and make a plan. Sometimes people make mistakes when organizing their business, which when interpreted at the everyday level, look curious:
“Oh no! I am late for the meeting, if I do not attend, I will lose company! There are 10 minutes left, if I hurry, I’ll be in time. Taaaaks, I’ll prepare carpaccio and go to work ”
Oil, of course, can also be spoiled, but you need to try hard, but add too much salt, so it's easy. The same goes for marketing. There are so-called proven methods - add oil, a little salt, a little pepper and you can eat. But what if instead of the ordered dishes in an expensive restaurant, they just bring you cooked buckwheat porridge, put two cooked sausages on top? In fact, buckwheat is delicious and sausages are cooked, but why is it puzzling? There are three main reasons:
Marketing, advertising and PR as a product exist in order to identify these reasons, and if they do not exist, create, based on the expectations of potential consumers, bring the services provided in accordance with their desires, come up with a reason and organize a story about it. The era of “vparinga” and “vtyuhinga” is already ending, as can be seen from the level of distrust in advertising, the end of this era is the beginning of a new one. An era in which marketing can no longer replace the main course, but can present it in all its glory.
Ice cream for children, his woman flowers. And look don't mix it up
A good housewife, like a good cook, always knows who she will cook for. And, accordingly, makes a menu of consumer preferences. If you know that in an hour or two a hungry friend will come to visit you, who, for example, does not like onions and has lactose intolerance, it is unlikely that you will prepare cheese and onion soup for his arrival. In business, in the same way, you should know who your consumer is and prepare a dish taking into account his taste and his preferences. The template phrase about “The path to the heart of a man” can be easily interpreted as “The path to the heart of the consumer lies through what exactly and how you offer him”.
The third commandment of the cannibal: raw is never hot
When a noisy company goes on a hike, finally makes an evening halt and cooks a kuesh on a lighted fire, fries sausages and starts eating, for some reason this simple food seems very tasty. Why? After all, the kulesh is overloaded, the sausages are not roasted. Everything is very simple - the same rules apply in the forest as in the market jungle.
- Firstly - a unique selling proposition and lack of competition, because the store is far away, and the nearest cafe “At Abdul” is even further.
- Secondly, tourists took a direct part in the preparation of the dish, someone was collecting firewood, someone was peeling potatoes. An example in the market jungle is the issue of shares on the market, and if a person bought them, took part in the development of the company, then he would buy this company and / or services, since he is financially dependent (in the case of tourists, this is dependence hunger) and, more importantly, he took part in the creation of the company.
- Thirdly - this, of course, is the correspondence of the atmosphere in which the tourist receives the product. These are the smiles of his friends, and Kolyan plays the guitar so well, and crickets flood with cicadas, and the fire crackles peacefully, and the fire plays with tongues of flame. Matching the atmosphere with consumer expectations, whether it's a trip to the forest or a store, is essential. Suppose a man enters a store in a market jungle, and there sellers roll their eyes and shrug their hands with a silent expression on their faces “Look, damn it, some kind of Vasya has come again ...” and the floor is dirty, a spider specifically settled in a corner its web, music doesn’t play at all, but you can hear the tape recorder chewing the film appetizingly. Such an atmosphere can also be harmonious, the buyer thinks, only I, in fact, wanted to buy a dress coat for my wedding, and not a bunch of brutal things.
“That's why I don’t like cats.”
- You just don’t know how to cook them
Before we start cooking, we must know and / or understand the recipe. What in what quantity, what quality, in what sequence and most importantly how to cook. We have to have all the ingredients ready. Nobody starts to cook kebabs in nature when meat has not yet been bought. Before starting your business, think about what you will need for it and how quickly you can organize it. Pay attention to obvious things, such as: time, delays, cost, competition and make a plan. Sometimes people make mistakes when organizing their business, which when interpreted at the everyday level, look curious:
“Oh no! I am late for the meeting, if I do not attend, I will lose company! There are 10 minutes left, if I hurry, I’ll be in time. Taaaaks, I’ll prepare carpaccio and go to work ”
Do not spoil the porridge with oil
Oil, of course, can also be spoiled, but you need to try hard, but add too much salt, so it's easy. The same goes for marketing. There are so-called proven methods - add oil, a little salt, a little pepper and you can eat. But what if instead of the ordered dishes in an expensive restaurant, they just bring you cooked buckwheat porridge, put two cooked sausages on top? In fact, buckwheat is delicious and sausages are cooked, but why is it puzzling? There are three main reasons:
- Actually the dish. When a person orders an expensive dish, he knows that the products from which it will be cooked will be of high quality, that not ketchup from the supermarket will be served with him, but the sauce prepared under the guidance of the chef, the dish itself will “open” and begin to play in different shades of taste that will be ensured by the use of seasonings not obvious to the average person.
- The method of presentation is the same interior, the atmosphere that the restaurant owners set, the courtesy and competence of the waiter, the people who sit at the next table, the music that plays.
- Expectations - a person, when he comes to eat, expects to be fed quickly, tasty and affordable. But this is only the tip of the iceberg, in fact, expectations can be very individual. Perhaps the guy leads the girl to an expensive restaurant, in order to impress. A businessman is looking for new friends to help his business. Someone is going to scandal or, at least, to be indignant (regardless of the quality of services provided). Someone else is coming because he made an offer to his future wife and they celebrate a golden wedding together. Someone because he likes the waitress and is good when she looks at him, talks to him, etc. If you think about it, then there can be many or one expectations and reasons why the consumer is going to you, and not to competitors.
Marketing, advertising and PR as a product exist in order to identify these reasons, and if they do not exist, create, based on the expectations of potential consumers, bring the services provided in accordance with their desires, come up with a reason and organize a story about it. The era of “vparinga” and “vtyuhinga” is already ending, as can be seen from the level of distrust in advertising, the end of this era is the beginning of a new one. An era in which marketing can no longer replace the main course, but can present it in all its glory.