The problem with marketing simulation is that it doesn’t actually simulate the actual customer. I’ve seen marketers go out, hire a bunch of different consultants, and expect them to deliver the “right” message. It’s a nice concept, but the reality is that when you run a marketing simulation, you’re basically going to miss out on the vast majority of the customers you should be getting.
The thing that marketing simulation misses out on is finding out exactly who the correct people are to talk to. The consultants you hire to talk to customers are probably not going to be who you need to run your next campaign. So in a marketing simulation, youre not actually going to get customers.
Its a common mistake for marketing consultants. When you are trying to run a marketing campaign, youll want to hire someone who is specifically trained to talk to customers. But you will also probably find that the people you hire are mostly the salespeople you would have hired anyway. If they were really interested in knowing what customers wanted, they would be on a team that actually understood how to sell, and wouldnt take orders all the time.
Marketing is a business and business is a business, so you need to know what to do to sell your product or service to customers. As a salesperson you want to be able to sell just about anything, and you dont want to be selling only to the people you know. You want to be able to sell to the whole world. As a manager you want to concentrate on the people you can influence the most.
It’s a bit of a paradox. I’m a manager. I’m not a marketer. Yet my job includes a lot of both. I want to influence customers and sell to the whole world.
Marketing is a lot like marketing theory, as in marketing strategy. One of the best ways to make sure you’re marketing the right way is to put yourself in the customer’s shoes and think about the behavior you want to influence. For example, if I want to get more customers using my website, what behaviors would I want to encourage and what will I be doing to influence them? I’d probably want to try to get them to use my services more.
You can find a lot of information on marketing theory right here on our site. I particularly like the section about segmentation. You can see how different segments of the market will react to the same offer, and how the best strategy to accomplish this is to segment your target market. Each segment has a different set of behavioral characteristics and needs, and by understanding what these characteristics are, you can influence them.
This is the section I find most interesting. It’s very relevant to marketing in general and marketing management in particular. It’s based on the idea that you can segment your target market and have a good idea of what the best strategy is to accomplish this. It’s not a “one size fits all” approach, but rather a series of different tactics, each of which will have a different focus on the segment.
Well that’s a good idea. You’re right. Its a good idea.
But what I find most interesting is that you have a good idea of the best way to segment your target market, but then you have no idea of the best way of marketing each segment. Its like marketing management in a way. You have a set of tactics, and then you have to figure out which one is best for a given segment.
