What is Marketing?
Marketing is gaining and managing profitable relationships with customers. It involves providing
value to customers and gaining value from them in return.
Case study – Emirates airlines, headquartered in Dubai, UAE. Founded – 1985.
At the end of the financial year March 31, 2016, Emirates Group achieved its 28th consecutive
profitable financial year. How were they able to do this? Their strategy involves two key things:
1. Understanding customers and their needs
2. Creating strong customer engagement
Understanding customers and their needs
Emirates focused on being customer focused by providing products, services, information and
experience tailor-made for their market. They took care of customer needs such as the ability of
being connected to the internet and calling landlines when on board, exclusive lounges for their
clientele, etc.
Creating strong customer engagement
Unlike its competitors who focused on discounting ticket fares, Emirates focused on customer
engagement. A major role in creating customer engagement was played by their customer loyalty
program called the ‘Skywards Program’.
They also skewed additional value by offering free luxury hotel accommodation, including meals and
ground transportation, Chauffer-drives to the customers’ final destination, etc. for premium-class
passengers.
Successful companies today focus on customer engagement and marketing.
Marketing Defined
Marketing has changed with time. It is no longer about TV ads, catalogues etc. The focus has now
shifted to satisfying customer needs.
, “The aim of marketing is to make selling unnecessary.”
Marketing is a process by which companies engage customers, build relationships and create value
for them in order to capture value from them.
5 Steps in the Marketing Process:
1. Understand the marketplace and customer needs and wants
2. Design a customer value– driven marketing strategy
3. Construct an integrated marketing program that delivers superior value
4. Engage customers, build profitable relationships, and create customer delight
5. Capture value from customers in return
Understand the marketplace and customer needs and wants
As marketers, we first need to understand what customer needs are. Needs are a human beings’s
state of felt deprivation. Wants are choices that humans make out of what they need. However,
with buying power, wants become demands. Companies need to learn about customer needs,
wants and demands.
Design a customer value–driven marketing strategy
Before creating a value–driven marketing strategy, marketers must first understand the consumers
and marketplace. Further, to create a strong value–driven marketing strategy, they must answer 2
important questions –
What’s our target market? (What customers do we serve?)
What’s our value proposition? (How can we serve them?)
Marketing is gaining and managing profitable relationships with customers. It involves providing
value to customers and gaining value from them in return.
Case study – Emirates airlines, headquartered in Dubai, UAE. Founded – 1985.
At the end of the financial year March 31, 2016, Emirates Group achieved its 28th consecutive
profitable financial year. How were they able to do this? Their strategy involves two key things:
1. Understanding customers and their needs
2. Creating strong customer engagement
Understanding customers and their needs
Emirates focused on being customer focused by providing products, services, information and
experience tailor-made for their market. They took care of customer needs such as the ability of
being connected to the internet and calling landlines when on board, exclusive lounges for their
clientele, etc.
Creating strong customer engagement
Unlike its competitors who focused on discounting ticket fares, Emirates focused on customer
engagement. A major role in creating customer engagement was played by their customer loyalty
program called the ‘Skywards Program’.
They also skewed additional value by offering free luxury hotel accommodation, including meals and
ground transportation, Chauffer-drives to the customers’ final destination, etc. for premium-class
passengers.
Successful companies today focus on customer engagement and marketing.
Marketing Defined
Marketing has changed with time. It is no longer about TV ads, catalogues etc. The focus has now
shifted to satisfying customer needs.
, “The aim of marketing is to make selling unnecessary.”
Marketing is a process by which companies engage customers, build relationships and create value
for them in order to capture value from them.
5 Steps in the Marketing Process:
1. Understand the marketplace and customer needs and wants
2. Design a customer value– driven marketing strategy
3. Construct an integrated marketing program that delivers superior value
4. Engage customers, build profitable relationships, and create customer delight
5. Capture value from customers in return
Understand the marketplace and customer needs and wants
As marketers, we first need to understand what customer needs are. Needs are a human beings’s
state of felt deprivation. Wants are choices that humans make out of what they need. However,
with buying power, wants become demands. Companies need to learn about customer needs,
wants and demands.
Design a customer value–driven marketing strategy
Before creating a value–driven marketing strategy, marketers must first understand the consumers
and marketplace. Further, to create a strong value–driven marketing strategy, they must answer 2
important questions –
What’s our target market? (What customers do we serve?)
What’s our value proposition? (How can we serve them?)
