Today I had an interesting conversation. Sitting at a round table, we discussed a company’s marketing activities and implementation.
I’ve always seen marketing as something very serious. But what appears? Marketing is definitely not that. Marketing is about connecting with consumers.
This sounds obvious, but it is also very true. Marketing is always curious about what the consumers think, communicate and how they take action. It’s about being curious and stimulating the curiosity of consumers.
Marketing is all about getting to know the consumer better. This time I deliberately refer to the consumer instead of the target group. In this case, the target group sounds like you have a group in sight that you are aiming for with your product or service, and bam, you have them! In contrast, consumers are busy consuming. Most of all, they consume a connection.
Goals, targets, strategies, schedules and actions, intended for marketing, provide a degree of control to deal with the changing behavior of consumers. This puts a lot of pressure on marketers to come up with new ideas. A kind of fear of not daring to leave those controlled paths.
Still, a marketing vision for the company does not mean that you make a connection with the consumer. That connection still needs to be established. However, if you know how to translate the marketing vision into the interest and desires of the consumer, then you also know why you need to connect with them.
By connecting with them you keep activating the curious and interested attitude within the consumer, because behavior will follow the attitude.
So after you take that one action from the marketing strategy, please be curious about the consumers again. Discover why you need to connect with them. Marketing is about connecting with consumers.
Just as with a marketing vision that continues to develop, consumers also continue to develop themselves. When consumers no longer feel connected to the brand, the question is what do they miss, what do they need and what do they expect. It is then the choice of the brand whether or not to go for it. If the choice is positive, the brand will have to reconnect with those consumers.
But also be curious about the other consumers who are not consuming the current products and services. Who knows, they may want something else that the company can also offer them. Having said that, marketing is also seeing opportunities for new connections.
Consumers are waiting for a connection. Really. Marketing is all about connecting. Sales is about achieving targets.
