O Customer, Where Art Thou

1
O Customer, Where Art Thou?

• Lecture One

2
What is the marketing concept?

• Customer orientation
• Profits, not sales
• Co-ordination of offer

3
When did the concept emerge?

• Marketing is the distinguishing, the unique
  function of businessActually, marketing is so
  basic that it is not just enough to have a strong
  sales department and to entrust marketing to it.
  Marketing is not only much broader than selling,
  it is not a specialised activity at all. It is
  the whole business seen from the point of view of
  its final result, that is, from the customers
  point of view. Concern and responsibility for
  marketing must therefore permeate all areas of
  the enterprise.
• Peter Drucker (1954, pp.35-6)

4
The Axis of Equal

• Marketing concept ubiquitous
• Functional equivalence of products
• Marketing-literate consumers

5
Mart-smarts

• 50 of US pop attended marketing course
• TV channels and radio stations
• Glossy magazine articles
• Sunday newspaper supplements
• Best selling books by executives (e.g. Richard
  Branson)
• Hollywood movies (What Women Want, Jerry Maguire,
  High Fidelity etc.)

6
Roach attack!

• Consumers are like roaches. We spray them with
  marketing and for a time it works. Then
  inevitably they develop an immunity, a
  resistance.
• Bond and Kirshenbaum (1998, p.92)

7
What next?

• Savvy, sceptical, sophisticated, smart, sated
  consumers
• What do about them?
• Get even closer?
• Best policy?

8
Inclusion

• Loyalty cards
• Consumer panels
• 1-800 hotlines
• Customisation systems
• Cult brands (Harley Davidson, Star Wars, Apple,
  Red Bull)
• Brand community

9
Nostalgia

• Retro branding (new Beetle, Nike trainers, etc)
• Reasons for retro (ageing boomers, pace of modern
  life, cheapness)
• How does it work (BME, perhaps)?

10
Irony

• Say one thing, mean the opposite
• Not new, but very common
• Sprite, Diesel, Isuzu, Budweiser etc
• Just like mother used to heat

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Mediability

• Buzz, stealth, viral marketing
• PR, talk about talking
• Sony Ericsson scam
• Marketing marketing

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MINI Marketing

• Mediability
• Irony
• Nostalgia
• Inclusion

13
Mini Marketing
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Authenticity

• Desire for authenticity?
• What is authenticity?
• What is authentic marketing?
• Selling stuff?

15
Madonna Marketing
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Desperately Seeking Dollars

• 20-year career
• 140 million albums
• 600 million fortune
• More hits than any other artist
• Record label
• Ancillaries
• Books

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Brand Ambition

• Subversion
• Scarcity
• Secrecy
• Scandal
• Sell-ebrity
• Storytelling
• Sublimity

18
Whos That CEO?
19
Books References

• Piercy, Market-Led Strategic Change.
• Baker, New Consumer Marketing.
• Morton, Madonna.
• Brown, Free Gift Inside!!
• Brown, Madonna Marketing, BH.
• Website sfxbrown.com

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Website (www.sfxbrown.com)

• Course details
• Contact info
• Assignments
• Reading list
• Other material
• Housekeeping