Summary:Is This a Golden Era for Marketing Productivity?

Published: May 5, 2003
Author: James Heskett

Kerem Sertbel
107604231

Work on several fronts suggests that we should be experiencing a resurgence of productivity in marketing, measured in terms of less waste in advertising, more clearly focused sales effort, and fewer product, service, and brand failures. However, it also raises interesting questions.

The 80/20 rule describes many phenomena faced by management. That is, for example, roughly 20 percent of employees experience 80 percent of accidents on the job. And roughly 20 percent of customers provide 80 percent of sales. Focused strategies can be based on this kind of information. Recently, managers in many businesses are concluding that the proportion of a firm's customers that account for nearly all of its profits may not exceed 10 percent when one takes into account the significant impact of so-called "apostle/owners" on a business. These are customers who are loyal, "viral" in the sense that they tell many others of their satisfaction, and influential enough to change others' buying patterns.

They are also customers who identify so closely with a product, service, or company that they provide valuable advice concerning product improvements and even new product ideas. The identification and "employment" of a relatively small number of these customers on behalf of a product or service can greatly improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of a marketing strategy. And it is made increasingly viable by Internet-based services.

Similarly, the search for more effective ways of developing and positioning brands, directing marketing messages, and improving products and services may be leading away from vast surveys or focus group inquiries of consumers' conscious reactions. Instead, they may increasingly be replaced with interviews of small numbers of individuals whose unconscious thoughts and reactions, often unknown even to them, are "unlocked" through concepts based on neuroscience and psychology.

That is one conclusion that can be drawn from Professor Gerald Zaltman's thought-provoking new book, How Customers Think. Why not mine ideas in the subconscious, what Zaltman calls the "mind/brain," where 95 percent of our thinking takes place? Zaltman maintains that with relatively small numbers of in-depth individual interviews employing carefully-designed questions posed to customers representative of selected market segments, insights can be gained to increase the probability of success in building brands and positioning products and services. The process is effective in terms of both results and costs.

All of this suggests that what we experience as consumers may be influenced by fewer and fewer "voices" from the market. The promise is that we will like what we experience, because it will involve such things as fewer irrelevant messages, better availability of products and services, and product performance geared to our real needs.

Comment:

As known from many years,the 80/20 rule had always wondered the managers.The rule is explained in the article and should the managers obey that rule(construct strategies based on this) or treat it like a tale?

However there is a group of customers that they definitely strict to the brand and become an "objective employees" of the brand so that almost every marketing strategy and many production decisions are based on them.This situation is so strong that can not be ignored.However,the point is that these people do not act by theirselves.They do it by their subconscious.Meaning that all the direct marketing techniques are not that strong.The key to a successfull marketing accomplishment lies in the deeper corners of brains.

As a result,people have gained immunity to the usual marketing bombards.From now on,innovative and unexpected techniques will be on the leading role.From now on,the physcology and sociology are the keys to reach out the consumers.