Mini MBA in Marketing

I now know what words like segmentation, positioning, and targeting mean. And it’s all thanks to graduating the Mini MBA in Marketing. What a great course. Over three months, Professor Mark Ritson downloaded all his knowledge straight into my brain. In addition to the core teaching sessions and weekly Q&As, there were articles from Marketing Week, papers from  Harvard and Stanford, as well as interviews with entrepreneurs and industry leaders. The production quality of the PowerPoint videos where so bad it was good. Picture jet-planes piloted by the collaged faces of Henry Ford and Steve Jobs, stock photos of boardroom meetings that get gate-crashed by Mark, word-cloud art on the difference between qualitative and quantitative research, and best of all – a miniature Mark hopping up the ladder of consumer benefits. It meant I didn’t stop smiling, which meant I learned a lot. The course breaks down the fundamentals of marketing into a suite of modules. The first few establish marketings ground rules. Essentially that it’s all about ensuring a business orientates itself to the needs, values, and desires of its customers. If you can’t do that then don’t bother with the rest.

With that in mind, Mark proceeded to unpack the essential components of a good marketing strategy. It begins by segmenting the market. It’s like taking a pie and slicing it up into parts.  Segmentation creates a map, illustrating who the high-value customer is and if they are key influencers upon any other groups. After that comes targeting. This is about determining which segments of the market to aim your products and services at – as well as those you won’t. To do this, it can help to create audience personas – compelling portraits of who they are, what they think, what they value, what frustrates them, and what they need. After that, it’s time for positioning. This is basically as easy as ABC. Who is your audience? Why does your brand exist? Who do you compete with? By deeply engaging with these questions - we can tightly articulate the brand positioning that solves a customer’s problems and distinguishes a brand from its competitors. To develop that positioning statement, Mark suggests climbing the benefits ladder, up up and away from product features towards emotional benefits. For example, WallMart used to claim ‘Always low prices. Always.’ but shifted it to ‘Save money. Live better.’ Once all this foundational thinking is complete it’s time to determine the marketing strategy. A good strategy is fundamentally about diagnosing the challenge the brand faces, a guiding plan to tackle this challenge, and the actions needed to complete that plan. To help diagnose the problem you face, Mark suggests looking for holes that need stopping up in the marketing funnel. And to develop a plan of attack for how you stop up those holes. He suggests using a SMART goal. This is essentially a succinct guiding statement that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timebound.

Once a strategy is in place it’s time to put it into action. The first module focused on products and services. It led with a quote from Peter Drucker: ‘A customer rarely buys what a business thinks it sells.’ For example, I’m not buying a kitchen, I’m buying clear communication and reassurance it’s all under control. I’m not buying a logo, I’m buying a process that reliably delivers results. A customer’s journey to purchase is a long wriggly road - it’s important to build trust early and often to re-enforce the brand positioning at every touchpoint. This leads to distribution channels. Basically, if you have to choose, pick the channels that align with what you do, otherwise be the brand that exists everywhere – removing all barriers between you and the consumer. The next module was pricing. The key point here was that perceived value and the cost of production are not the same things. So, when we price a product or service based on a mark-up of the cost to produce, we end up leaving money on the table. To illustrate, Mark referenced the differences in approach of Samsung and Apple in the smartphone market. Samsung has 22% of the market vs Apple’s 13%. However because Apple’s operational costs are lower, but their recommended retail price is higher – their profit margins are 40% compared with Samsungs 18%. It’s better to overprice your product than underprice it. Why? Underpricing means reduced revenues, reduced profits, reduced brand equity, reduced marketing investment, encourages price wars, and ultimately turns your brand into a commodity. The last few modules focused on brand and integrated campaigns. Whether it’s creating brand distinction or communicating brand values it’s necessary to select the right tool for the job. By understanding your audience, the brand positioning, and the marketing objective – you’ll know which media channels and combinations are best to achieve the best outcome.