Aligning the Whole Business to Customers' Changing Needs
"Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a specialised activity at all. It encompasses the
entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer's point
of view."
- Peter Drucker.
The term 'Marketing' is widely misunderstood. Many people think
of marketing simply as advertising and promotion. This is merely one
aspect of marketing, ie 'operational marketing'.
At a much more fundamental level, Marketing is about aligning your
whole business or organisation to the needs of customers.
'Strategic Marketing' is not about producing brochures but asking
the serious and difficult questions, such as 'What business should
we be in?'; 'What do customers really want?'; and 'What can we excel at
in a competitive marketplace?'
As David Packard of Hewlett Packard said: "Marketing is too important to be left to the
marketing department."
In short, Strategic Marketing requires a complete change of
thinking, from:
'How can we sell what we want to produce?' to
'How can we use our skills to produce what the market wants?'
This requires both an accurate understanding of market needs,
and a willingness to shape the organisation and
its products around customer needs
(instead of trying to shape the customer to fit the
organisation's products and services.)
"To satisfy the customer is the mission and purpose of every business".
- Peter Drucker
Note: This web page is not intended to provide comprehensive coverage of the subject, merely a brief introduction to provoke thought and to lead to a more in depth understanding and application of the topic, either through further reading - or from me as your management consultant, executive trainer or personal coach in a consultancy project, training course, workshop or seminar.