September 2010 – Josh's Marketing

How Effective is Marketing?

When I was nine years old I asked my Aunt why companies marketed. She was a buyer of fashion clothes for a couple of different companies and has a marketing degree. Therefore, I place some weight upon her response. What she said really shocked and confused me because it seemed so obvious and simple but ineffective.

Well here it goes, “Imagine you walk into a shop and you want to buy toothpaste, the question that is posed to you as you stand in the isle is, which one? Now this is where marketing comes in, each product is similar and should have the same effect but each one is uniquely different as well. Therefore, the one what you will probably buy will be the one you recognize and know the best because someone has told you about it. And VOILA, there’s marketing. The larger companies like Colgate have marketed their product enough that when you think of buying toothpaste you automatically think of Colgate and will probably buy it.

Although this is only one minuet part of marketing it is the part that has struck me the most. I sometimes wonder if the amount of money that is spent of marketing is really worth it. However, I know that if you do not have a product that people know about or affiliate themselves with then your product is worthless. This is because one of the definitions of marketing is giving a product value. A product that no one knows about has no value and cannot sell. Therefore, marketing is needed to give that one product value.

Then next point that I am forced to think about though is is the amount of money invested in marketing worth the return you will make. This is tricky because that question can only be answered looking back from the future. At least that’s what I think, therefore, I think we need to learn how to estimate how much to put into marketing to create the product customers want, but will make us MONEY!!!

The World of Guinness

Whenever you think of a business, you always tend to focus on the finance, the operations, and the administration of the company in question. Since my recent exposure to marketing I have begun to realize that there is a lot more to a business and a company than that.

The first key concept that you learn in marketing is the 4 P’s. Product, price, place, and promotion. These appear inconsequential at first, however, once you examine them in more detail you realize the extent to which these 4 P’s cover.

Take, for instance, this youtube video , watch it and think about it. The first thing that striked me was, INAPPROPRIATE to say the least, but once you got over the drastic nature of this commercial you can understand why it exists and why it is effective.

Product – What guiness are selling is ibviously beer, that state that clearly and they show you what are the advantages of having their beer as opposed to having a different kind of beer.

Price – Who really cares about the price of this beer if it can get you that!!! Regardless, pricing is an issue, however, Guinness prefer to promote their product on quality not quantity, and therefore will charge more.

Place – Television and Youtube, this is meant to be humorous and has been very successful at attracting young adults to look at this video.

Promotion – Beer and girls, if you are appealing to a young adult demographic this is something that is important in equal quantities and Guinness demonstrates that with their product you will get the best of both worlds.

Now I am clearly not promoting what is going on in this commercial, I just think that the marketing aspects of it are pretty neat. The way Guinness has appealed to a certain demographic in certain ways to create an outrageous but talked about idea. This is where marketing is at its best. Effective and funny, captures minds but also tells them ideas, and solidifies their company name whilst embellishing their product. These ways of appealing to people and making them aware of what you have demonstrates the significance of marketing because without it, your products would not sell.

Thanks,