The Enlightened Way to Marketing

Global Marketing Enlightenment for the aspiring Entrepreneur

Rishi Says:

What is Marketing?

Rishi Says: As per the American Marketing Association, it is " the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives." (2)

Why is Marketing important?

Rishi Says:  It is the essential practice through which manufacturer and consumer are connected. It identifies a need (through market research) to develop a product, establishes a brand (through brand management),  promotes the product (through advertising), and creates a feedback loop (through public relations). Marketing is at the center of it all and central to understanding how to serve the customer—rather than simply sell a random product.

What is the difference between Marketing, Market Research, & Advertizing?

Rishi Says: Market Research is the process of identifying, analyzing, and deciding a target market and how to serve it. It divides a putative market into segments, and seeks to understand how various factors (i.e. geographic, demographic, etc) influence the best means of serving them.

Advertizing is the practice of promoting a product or service in the general marketplace. It utilizes mass media, personal selling, and everything in between to generate interest and induce purchase.

Marketing harnesses both of these to better position a product or service from a manufacturing, distribution, or sales perspective.

What is Brand Management?

Rishi Says: Brand Management is the practice of developing, positioning, promoting, and maintaining Brand equity. 

According to Kotler, "Brand equity is the positive differential effect that knowing the brand name has on customer response". (1) 

In laymen's terms, it is the establishing and positioning of a brand in order to increase value or drive the exchange of a product or service. Brands are used to help sell a product or service or to establish an image in the minds of the target market. The entire marketing mix is generally then deployed in service of enhancing or preserving brand equity.

Starbucks, Target, and Intel are all billion+ brands in different business sectors. Nevertheless, each one demonstrates how a brand by itself can generate interest in purchasing a product or service.

Incidentally, experts agree that the very first brand was in fact invented by a Rishi. Maharishi Chyavana is credited with the invention of a namesake Ayurvedic health concoction commonly known as "Chyavanprash".

What are the Essentials of Marketing?

Rishi Says: The fundamental framework to analyzing a market is the 4P's. These are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. From this basis, a marketer (or entrepreneur) can study a product/service and its positioning/profitability in a given environment.

What are the Essentials of Brand Management?

Rishi Says: If Marketing has the 4P's, then branding has the 4B's: Brand Positioning, Brand Selection, Brand Sponsorship, and Brand Development. The first one determines the mindspace a company or service should occupy, the second determines the name and immediate equity, the third determines its primary platform (i.e. private brand), and the fourth determines extensions/multibrands, etc.

Sources:

1. Kotler, Philip & Armstrong. Principles of Marketing. Pearson. 2004.p.292
2. Belch, George E. & Michael A.Belch. Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective. NY: McGraw Hill. 6th. 2004

Rishi’s Mantras:

Collaborate when you can, compete when you have to.

Competition is great. It can bring out the best in people, and can put our skills to the test. But if you’re constantly keeping up with the Joneses, if winning your rivalry is becomes more important than preserving sustainable profits, then there’s something wrong with you. An attitude of collaboration builds internal team culture. Rather than playing man-to-man (or woman-to-woman), it’s zone-defense. Each teammate should look after his or her zone to deliver results to the team. It’s not me vs you—it’s us vs the problem.

Culture, not Cults!!

There are too many cults in the world today. Personality cults are terrible. Just because some guy is good at some random thing, just cause some famous female celebrity makes millions, doesn’t mean they have it all figured out. Chances are, they are just as lost as you—maybe more so.

Improve your own culture. Whether your are Indian, American, or Indian-American, or Native-American, or Chinese, or Irish, or South African, or Brazilian—we all have some culture. Some may feel that the culture they were born into is not so great. But only leave it and take up another if after significant experience, you know it might have something wrong with it. It’s very rare that a whole culture is wholesale beyond redemption. The only such culture I can think of to date is…Star Wars (Sorry, guys, Trekkie here. “Make Trek, not War!).

Therefore, get in tune with the best principles and the highest ethics of your own culture, and live them—rather than sellout or shellout your life-savings to some snakeoil salesman. There’s a reason why the original Management Guru, Sri Sri Sri Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast!”.

Get your own culture right, and you can get your corporate culture right. Then with the same solid team, you might exit one poor-prospect business (or geography) and succeed in another. Culture, not Cults!!!

When all else fails, meditate on OM.

This might seem a bit glib to brand managers who have bottomlines and bills to worry about, but all too often, professional men and women get caught up in the rat race. Win or lose, it’s important to take a step back and meditate on the Universal Mantra: OM. Think of it as Oneness Marketing (OM). When you are one with yourself, and one with your brand, you’re at harmony with whatever business vicissitudes may come your way.

Your business may or may not succeed, but there’s always something you still have—family, friends, or a sweet little mouth to feed. Whether parents, progeny, or pets, we all have someone who cares about us. Don't give up. Instead, take a moment for yourself every day, and just meditate on OM (or whatever religious figure your respect). Meditation, whether on marketing or existence at large, connects us to something beyond ourselves and our hopeless problems. Then, who knows, it might all just make sense.

Don’t be so hard on yourself. Nobody bats a thousand. And even the biggest control-freak, can’t control everything. Sometimes you can do your best, and it still won’t pan out. So give yourself a break.

While the small print is key, the big picture is crucial. Rather than trying to be someone else, understand your own brand and your own core competencies first.  See the big picture of your business life or way-of-life, for 1 min each day. And whether you pray or pranayama your way to inner peace, take a moment, and just breathe in…breathe out…