Marketing as a field of academic study? Leave it up to Philip Kotler to explain!

Monday: MicroBusiness and Marketing Marvels FROM THE DESK OF MILES EVERSON: Universities and colleges all over the world now include Marketing as a field of academic study. All thanks to this great Professor, Philip Kotler. Known as the “Father of Modern Advertising,” Kotler has been the International Marketing chair holder at Northwestern University since 1988, one of the main business study centers in the world. Aside from that, he’s also an Economics, Writing, Mathematics, and Lecturer Specialist who has published over 55 books about marketing, including “The Principles of Marketing.” Keep reading to know more about the principle marketing concepts as explained by Kotler. CEO, MBO Partners Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute

Marketing as a field of academic study? Leave it up to Philip Kotler to explain! Philip Kotler: The Father of Modern Advertising To get the most out of your marketing strategies, you have to bring some real advantages to your business. Philip Kotler’s principle marketing concepts can help you with that. Before getting into detail about what these concepts are, let’s first define some of the most important terminologies in marketing. What is Marketing? According to Kotler in his book, “Marketing Management”: “Marketing is an administrative and social process through which individuals and groups obtain what they need and desire by the generation, offering, and exchange of valuable products with their equals.” What is Segmentation? In the book, “Principles of Marketing,” Kotler explains that segmentation is acknowledging that you can’t serve all clients with the same level of satisfaction. To provide the greatest satisfaction to consumers as possible, it’s necessary to define a “target market.” A target market consists of “a set of buyers who have common needs and characteristics to those that a company or organization decides to serve.” What is Positioning? Positioning is how you make your target market know exactly how you differ from your competitors. Here’s how Kotler demonstrates this concept: “For example, in Starbucks’ case, you will see that not only do they ensure that coffee is fresh and that the product has what it takes, but also that they add so much more. [So, Starbucks’] position is giving a better coffee, more varieties to choose from, and a completely pleasant experience in a place where you’ll enjoy having coffee.” Moving on to the marketing concepts that Kotler is known for… According to him, there are 3 types of marketing―Marketing 1.0, Marketing 2.0, and Marketing 3.0. Marketing 1.0 refers to reaching clients’ minds, doing a good job, offering good quality products or services to people, and generating earnings. Meanwhile, Marketing 2.0 pertains to defining and analyzing client databases to know them better. Through these processes, businesses are able to study consumers’ behaviors and preferences to give them the best service possible. As for Marketing 3.0, Kotler says this is the most advanced form of marketing. In this stage, businesses do not only aim to sell products or services in the best way possible, but also operate to make the world a better place. In other words, Marketing 3.0 is providing products, services, and value. Take a look at some of Kotler’s most educative and enlightening quotes about marketing: “Marketing is not the art of finding ingenious ways to exhibit what you do. Marketing is the art of creating genuine value before your clients and helping them to improve. The keywords of marketing are: Quality, Service, and Value.”   “Companies pay too much attention to the cost of something. They should be more worried about the cost of doing nothing.”   “The key to branding (brand-building), especially for small companies, is to focus on a limit number of areas in the sector and develop a superior expertise in said areas.”   “The future of marketing resides in marketing databases, through which we know enough about each client to make relevant and personalized offers to each one of them.”   “It’s more important to do what is strategically correct than what is immediately profitable.” These concepts and tips are not only applicable to big enterprises and corporations. They can also be applicable to you, as an independent professio Come to think of it. Just because you’ve shifted to an independent career, that doesn’t mean you won’t have to do the marketing anymore. In fact, that’s all the more reason for you to learn how you can effectively market your brand―doing so will help determine the success of your being an independent and the trajectory of your client and customer base! Keep Kotler’s marketing principles in mind and apply his advice and tips on how to get the most out of your strategies. These will not only bring a competitive advantage to your brand, but also help you deliver good quality products or services and significant value to your target market. Hope you’ve found this week’s insights interesting and helpful. Follow us on LinkedIn.     Stay tuned for next Monday’s MicroBusiness Marvels! Learn more about Don Draper on next week’s MicroBusiness and Marketing Marvels!