Why does a start-up business need marketing?

It seems that the English-language term "marketing" describes something distant, necessary only for large corporations. But this is not true: every company does something called marketing, but not every one does it consciously and competently. We explain what the essence of this activity is, why marketing is broader than advertising, how to do without a marketer at first, and in what cases even top marketing agencies will be powerless.

Marketing is the activity of studying the needs of potential buyers, finding effective solutions to meet them and stimulating demand.

Marketing helps to understand the customer

Surely you have studied the assortment and prices of competitors. Such an analysis is already marketing, as it is a superficial market research. It remains only to delve into it and understand who is interested in your products and how to offer people exactly what they want.

Determine, at least approximately, the key characteristics of your audience: gender, age, place of residence, income level, interests. Then divide the clients into groups. So, the audience of a furniture salon may include married couples with children, bachelors, company managers who buy furniture for the office, and all these people will be interested in completely different advertising offers. Understanding the audience, its habits and needs will allow you to "please" more customers.

Example

You are the owner of a canteen where employees of a nearby business center often dine. There is a university nearby, and you have noticed that students also come to you, but much less often: due to short breaks, they rarely have time to eat in the canteen and prefer to have a snack on the run. If you find a drop-down segment of the audience — students, you can add sandwiches and other takeaway dishes to the assortment. Advertise them as a hearty, inexpensive and healthy snack and increase the flow of customers.

Marketing attracts those who don't come on their own

When starting a business, some entrepreneurs rely solely on word of mouth. But it is not omnipotent. How do customers of a paint factory on the other side of the city know that it has the lowest prices if the price list is not freely available, and the company has not declared itself in any way? Marketing offers many effective tools for promoting products and services, and not all of them require large investments. Contests with hashtags, posting in thematic groups on social networks, partnerships with specialized distributors, contextual and targeted advertising, mailings, promotions, discounts and special offers, publications in thematic media — all this can be used to make people know about you and come to you.

Example

You have opened a minimarket in a residential multi-storey building. The entrances of the house are located only on one side, your store is on the other, and the sign "Products" attracts only those who pass by. At the same time, residents of the same house may not know about the existence of the minimarket for several months - especially those who drive a car and park in front of their entrance, without turning behind the house. But you're interested in customers who have cars — these people tend to have higher income. Therefore, you throw leaflets into the mailboxes of the nearest five-story buildings with information about the opening of the store, the breadth of the assortment and promotions on Thursdays.

Marketing pushes for product improvement

It's hard to sell people what they don't need. It is even more difficult to make sure that the purchase is not a one-time purchase. Marketing allows you to determine the true needs of the audience, which are not always obvious. Understand what is more important for the consumer: convenience, aesthetics, accessibility, quality, or a combination of some parameters. And thanks to this, not only to build a promotion strategy correctly, but also to detect the imperfections of the product from the client's point of view.

Example

You produce high-quality cosmetics and sell them at market prices in retail stores. But for some reason, they buy it worse than competitors' products. It would seem that you satisfy the main need of the consumer – the quality of the product. You analyze the portrait of the target audience, conduct surveys and, for example, conclude that some of the potential buyers are women 18+ who like bright and stylish jars. You change the packaging design, and sales grow.

Marketing suggests prices and methods of sales promotion

It does not matter whether the price is high or low – in the consumer's mind, the price must be fair: the client wants to understand what he is offered to pay so much for. Thanks to marketing, the company will know the prices in its niche, the approximate solvency of the audience and will be able to act within this framework. And the price and its "justification" in the advertising message about the product will look different, depending on the interests of each consumer segment: as a payment for elite value, as a way to save money, as a guarantee of quality, etc.

Marketing establishes sales

Understanding the customer base will tell you where to look for the consumer and how he is ready to purchase the product: online or in a retail store, placing a pre-order or waiting for a sale, paying in cash or by card. It should be convenient for the client, otherwise he will not buy anything or will buy less often.

Example

There are 2 vacant premises in the shopping center, you choose which one to rent for a pharmacy: more expensive on the first floor or cheaper and more spacious on the second. It seems that the latter option is more profitable. But the target audience of the pharmacy is people who need medicines. Often they are weakened, do not feel well and are not at all ready to make extra efforts to go up to the second floor - it is easier to find a pharmacy closer. You rent a room on the ground floor and do not lose customers.

Marketing helps you stand out from the competition

It is naïve to think that a high-quality product, which has many analogues, will attract the consumer by itself. Even if your business is a pioneer in its niche, sooner or later there will be competitors who will pull away part of the audience. It is important to offer the market something that will distinguish the company from others. Present customers with a product with the characteristics of a unique selling proposition (USP) and reflect this in an advertising campaign, service principles, etc. Study the needs of the audience, its fears, and desires in order to use USPs to hit the target and intercept the client from competitors.

Example

You own a grocery store in a modern residential complex. Next door to your point there is a chain supermarket and a small grocery store. Competitors have a wider assortment, so customers come to you when they forgot to buy something in another store. Thanks to audience analysis, you know that apartments in a residential complex are chosen by people with above-average incomes who strive for reasonable consumption. And therefore you offer customers to weigh fresh vegetables and fruits not in plastic bags, but in reusable nets, and at the exit from the store you put bins for separate garbage collection. For the client, it looks like a way to satisfy 2 needs at once: to buy products and take care of nature, which none of your competitors offer.

Marketing allows you to communicate with the consumer

By paying attention to the needs and characteristics of the target audience, it is easier to choose the right communication channels, as well as get prompt feedback. If a business communicates with the client in the same language, the consumer has the feeling that he is heard and understood, shares his values, and this increases loyalty. And, of course, marketing allows you to avoid elementary mistakes in communication with the audience: for example, a familiar tone in a mailing addressed to lawyers with 10 years of experience in judicial practice.

Example

You bought a batch of goods for a small boutique - shirts and pantsuits made of wrinkled fabric. You have been running a boutique account on social networks for a long time, where you publish a post about a new product. Instead of posting just a photo and signing the price, you also talk about the benefits of the fabric, give a couple of tips on how to care for such clothes, and ask customers what other product they are interested in.

Marketing saves resources

Marketing requires investment, but prevents wasted spending and allows you to take deliberately more effective measures. So, you can launch advertising on social networks without targeting, that is, not aimed at a specific category of people. But with targeting, the campaign will work better. You can take a risk by buying a batch of goods at random and go bankrupt. Or you can choose something that will definitely appeal to most of the target audience. It's better to invest at least a little in marketing or use free tools than to go blind.

Example

You make soap in original shapes and sizes, your potential customers are young people who like creative things. You invest all your free funds in TV advertising, but it does not bring results: the target audience does not include the TV. As an experiment, you sell or provide free of charge several batches of soap to youth hostels in the city center. Guests can use soap in the rooms or buy it from the administrator, a tag with the company's contacts and nickname in social networks is glued to the packaging of each piece. And a few weeks later, you receive your first orders

Marketing is the foundation of a customer-centric business

It is not necessary to use all existing tools, in some places just common sense is enough. It is important to be guided by the key idea of marketing: at the center of the business are the needs and interests of the client, which correspond to the company's product. Otherwise, what the entrepreneur does will be needed only by him, and no advertising tricks motivate customers to make regular purchases.

Example

You order a large-scale advertising campaign from a well-known marketing agency. You don't tell almost anything about your company except for the obvious things, you don't explain what makes the selling proposition unique, but you hope that someone else's efforts will ensure an increase in audience engagement. As a result, the number of visitors to the company's website is growing, but sales are not. You draw conclusions, analyze the data provided by the agency, study your audience, improve the product according to the true needs of customers. And then you again turn to marketers for help, and the second advertising campaign pays off with interest.