The Hindu Business Line : Thinking big is important

WE run into dummies more often than dummies run into good literature that's just right for them. Such as Alexander Hiam's Marketing Kit for Dummies, from Wiley (www.wiley.com) . The second edition of the book shares "a host of techniques and tools to help you grow the quality and quantity of your sales." And it also packs in a CD "chock-full of templates for making plans, sales projections, surveys, and coupon profitability analysis."

Alex's first tip is this: "Marketing is a complex field, but at heart, it's very, very simple." It involves only you, your customer, and the relationship between you two, even if you don't meet, he explains. To know your customers, "make a list of a dozen attributes, or specific factors they look at." The author gives an example of how there can be differences among customers: "Some people care about firmness in a mattress above everything else; others care about softness; and still others care about length (because they're too tall for ordinary mattresses). Overall, however, most people care about comfort."

Marketing 101 usually dins into students the `Four Ps,' viz. product, price, placement and promotion. Alex wants to include `people' as the fifth. It's the least visible, he'd say, but adding it to the list "offers you another powerful lever for achieving your sales and marketing goals." Do some creative thinking about each of the Five Ps every day, he advises. "Marketing isn't like chemistry or algebra or bookkeeping. Marketing has no right answers — only the answers you invent, test, and develop." Things may not happen in a flash, because "great marketing arises from frequent cycles of thinking (or intuiting) and trying."

There's a chapter on auditing your marketing, to achieve your business goals. Such an audit "identifies problems that are holding you back." How? Because it is "a systematic examination of every aspect of sales, marketing, customer service, and all other operations that affect sales and marketing." The audit will reveal your strengths, too, reassures Alex. "Remember: Thinking big is an important part of marketing success."

Creativity is an essential component of your marketing success, and you need to audit creativity too! "Manage it, just like any other important business activity or asset." Two tests to find if you're creative: Are you doing things differently and doing new things? Are do you original things? Creativity in marketing gives it more `impact' and lets to reap better return for money spent.

"Somewhere in customers' heads or hearts lies the answer to every question, including how to grow your company tenfold in the next three years. You just have to get that information out of them," urges the author. Often, your customers may not know what they know, so your customer research has to elicit the insight. For starters, "all you have to do is ask." And they know how to talk; "often, they're flattered that you value their opinions." Audit your customer service too.

Alex devotes a chapter to creativity, focussing on each of the Five Ps. A caution is to avoid creativity for its own sake. "Entertaining or amazing an audience without making any sales is expensive," reminds the author; check if your ad is "in danger of becoming its own product instead of selling yours." He introduces you to many techniques to generate creative concepts, such as, revelling in the irreverent! Alex recommends any comedy, "whether it has something to do with business or not," because "humour is based on unusual viewpoints, and it helps you loosen up and find your own creative perspectives."

Don't miss the `shortcuts to great ads' with do-it-yourself templates, tips on budgeting campaigns, and `power alternatives to advertising.' The last part of the book is `the part of Tens' — with `ten great marketing strategies,' `ten ways to make marketing pay,' and `ten-plus ways to market on the Web.'

And if you want to know the one way of how not to remain dumb about marketing, don't fight shy of Dummies!

BookMark@thehindu.co.in

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