Marketing - Know Your Value
To paraphrase the AMA, Marketing is responsible for creating, communicating and delivering products and services that have Value for customers, stakeholders and society as a whole.
I personally believe in a simpler definition: Marketing is responsible for managing the business. That may sound bold and raise questions. That’s good, because that leads to an important dialogue: what is a company’s true Value? How well marketing professionals understand the value their company provides coupled with the value customers and potential customers seek will position them to execute strategies and plans that contribute the most to success.
Through all the nuances and energies spent on various marketing activities, there are four simple reminders that can help marketing keep its company focused:
- Understand your company’s true value.
- Take care not to over-estimate that value.
- Look at intangibles when defining value.
- Be nimble and adjust based on changes in value.
It is easy for companies to be so enthusiastic and passionate about what they provide that they forget to look through the eyes of the customer. Companies can also lose focus on changing trends and customer behaviors that impact perceived value. And some companies may not always accurately realize the basis of their true value. Focusing on product features while underestimating the value of engineering support or customer service is just one example.
A careful understanding of value as perceived by the customer is essential for both customer-focused as well as internal activities. This is where Marketing can lead. Product development, pricing strategies, channel to market policies, sales tools, staffing plans, manufacturing forecasts and capital expenditures all rely on accurate assessments of the value that can be provided. Over-estimating value raises expectations, can lead to disappointment, failed initiatives or worse. Marketing must coordinate with other business functions to understand the voice of the customer and in so doing exert its own voice in providing accurate value assessments to the rest of the company. This is the true value of Marketing.