Nathaniel Thiele

M is for Media

Media is one of the most important channels for marketing. Marketing with media allows for a broad audience to be reached. Media can be television, web ads, or news articles. Media streams create demand for products. Broadcasting a Bud Light ad before a game to make a customer “thirsty”, making them more likely to drink beer. 

A is for Assumptions

Marketing assumes a target market. Marketing is making a calculated bet based on statistics and case studies. The case studies target key traits which may not be the user. For example, the assumed market of the Honda Element kids just graduating college. The actual demographic were retired people.

R is for Real Demographic

Every product has a real demographic that uses the product. New Coke wasn’t selling to loyal customers like Old Coke was. Old Coke was selling to customers who drank soda regularly. New Coke was selling to customers who didn’t drink soda at all. Knowing your market helps sell your product.

K is for Kissing

Good marketing makes you want to kiss the product. The solution saved time, money, or resources. This streamlines the process and creates word-of-mouth advertising. Kissing the product is sharing a product’s positive attributes with no negative attributes mentioned. 

E is for Effort

The more effort the customer spends on a product, the more they become put off. Telecommunications spend a lot of effort trying to get new customers. Telecommunications make more money on new customers than they do on existing customers. Carriers are so competitive that no company has a clear advantage.

T is for Training Customers

Marketing trains customers on how to use their product. Customers learn the ins and outs of the products from marketers to optimize usage. Marketers must build relationships to help train customers in how to operate products and add-ons.

In Neutral Ground

Working at Academy Sports and Outdoors, I discovered that the best marketing is simple. Stocking shelves with supplies allows the customers to interact with the products. The supply chain has recently been fragmented because of dishonest workers and increased shipping costs from China. The impact of Chinese shipping is of great importance as 85% of our products are built in China. Marketing has broad social and economic effects. Targeting an audience through media and word-of-mouth marketing creates happy customers. These customers help drive sales and increase value for investors as well as value creation.