Marketing: Sorcerer, Alchemist And Medicine Man

We often hear about the word 'marketer', what does it mean exactly? Well, from the word itself, we can easily relate it to the term 'marketing'. Marketing is a process of planning and undertaking the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of goods and services to create and maintain relationships that will satisfy individual and organizational objectives. (Boone & Kurtz, cited in Stimpson & Farquharson 2002) Most people have the view that a marketer is just another name for a salesperson, but is that really so? According to Groucutt (2005), marketer can be described as sorcerer, alchemist and medicine man. What has any of this got to do with marketing? Marketer can be described as a sorcerer as he collects ingredients from different

An alchemist is someone who turns leads into gold. One of the jobs of marketers is to convert as many customers as possible into gold and platinum as they contribute to most of the company's profit. For an alchemist, he has to first identify the metallic properties, then exact the metals from the ore, and lastly attract and hold the metals together. The same concept applies to marketers. Marketers have to first identify and look for customer values and characteristics that consistently appear in platinum and gold customers. Next they have to design a marketing mix that captures the attention of those customers. Marketers would also have to create and maintain a good relationship with the customers. It is a matter of the utmost importance as research has shown that most buying is repeat-buying. Customers are likely to continue purchase and even become brand evangelist if they feel connected to a company. (Lawson Hembree's blog 2011) Double Jeopardy effect causes brands with higher market shares tend to enjoy higher repeated purchases than those with smaller market shares. Marketers seek to gain brand loyalty to defend their position in the market. (Dutta

Many marketers face the problem of not having a large enough volume of interested prospects, while some others just don't know which area they should focus their efforts on for the highest return. To have effective targeting, marketers should identify their buyers personas to determine who it is they should be marketing to. However, in order for someone to even consider listening to your message or reading your content, it has to offer some sort of value to them. (Goliger 2012) Today, media evolves quickly, and marketers have to move away from channel-specific strategies and adopt a truly liquid approach to communication. (Livingston 2013) Those with some knowledge of marketing do not always have enough knowledge to deal with specific situations and the complications that can occur. For a marketing strategy to be successful the marketer must understand what tactics to use, when and when not to use them, and in what proportion to use them and for how long. (Groucutt