Marketing as a value creation exercise.

 Marketing is essentially an exercise aimed at creating value for a business or individual through greater public awareness of their enterprise or product. As such, the cost of marketing should be such that it does not exceed the value generated by the exercise, whether such value is increased sales or more brand awareness, or any other measure determined by the marketer. This way, there is always a profit to be gained from marketing.

Effectiveness and efficiency are important terms in marketing, which determine the success of marketing drives. Effectiveness is measured by what results have been triggered by the marketing drive, while efficiency is measured by how easy it has been to convert the population into an audience. The population here refers to the general public, while the audience is that segment of the general public you have managed to capture their attention, and therefore being able to pass on your marketing message to them.

Marketing goals should be clear from the onset, as you should know what you want to achieve for you to be able to develop a plan for achieving it, which should also be clear and concise as the goals.Ideally,you shouldn’t have too many goals to achieve in a marketing campaign, as that makes it complicated to go about the campaign, and possibly less effective or efficient. The goals should also be simple, but part of a broader strategy for you or your business. This is in recognizing that marketing is only one of many activities in a business, and should help you achieve goals in other activities of the business as well.

Communicating clearly your message is an essential part of successful marketing. You don’t want the audience or population wondering at what you are trying to say, or pass through. It should be clear from the onset. Good communication usually involves using less words, to ensure that the audience reads it without being turned off by bulk text. Use of graphics also makes the communication more interactive, and does drive up response. The channels or media used to pass the communication should also be ideal, designed to reach the right audience with the right message for greater conversion. In our modern age ,social media has especially become a powerful channel of marketing communication, in some cases even more than email marketing. Combining several media and channels is off course the ideal way to communicate your message well. You also need to repeat your messaging to the same population, as that’s a proven way of turning them into your audience.

The nature of your enterprise, or what you are marketing will usually determine the right media to use. Another determinant is,however,your budget, as marketing is an expensive exercise. As explained earlier, you should market at a profit, so you need to use the least resources for the greatest effect. One way to do this is to retain your audience, as it is cheaper to sell more to a customer than to acquire a new one. Your marketing strategy should be designed with this in mind. Marketing is what makes a business thrive, and is ideally a continuous process.

Author:Wangui.