This is Marketing: Chapter Three
Marketing Changes People…
In the third chapter of This is Marketing, Seth Godin takes us further into understanding what marketing really means as ground reality.
He illustrates how people aren’t rational beings when it comes to their choices for consumption. They will more often than not trade long term benefits for short term.
We often think (or overthink) making a purchase when it involves a risk regardless of its benefits. Most people are shortsighted when it comes to spending their money because the majority of population across the world live off hand-to-mouth income.
[For the underprivileged] To go shopping is to take a risk. And we’re able to take that risk because being wrong isn’t fatal. Being wrong doesn’t cost us dinner or a medical checkup.
An interesting observation here, was that people are driven by an avoidance of loss rather than a desire for gain. Which made me reflect on every online service ever that offers trial subscriptions (Spotify, Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube and so on). This really highlights how people are more likely to opt in for a long term subscription at the end of the trial as they are able to experience the product without the risk of committing to it. Post the trial period, if one has enjoyed the benefits, naturally they are more likely to make a purchase.
As marketers, we are not in a race of providing the best features for the minimal price; because, chances are, even then the consumer on the other side would not be interested in what we’re selling.
Rather it is a quest to understand the irrational forces that drives all of us and use that knowledge to bring about change in the lives of those we intend to serve.
People don’t want what you make. They want what it will do for them. They want the way it will make them feel.
Stories. Connections. Emotions. Experience — That’s what we seek as consumers; and that’s where true marketing lies. People have this narrative — stories, about themselves, their lives and every experience that they encounter — that they tell themselves. And as marketers, we must identify, understand, imagine and resonate with these stories, from the perspective of those we serve, in order to make their lives better.
As marketers, we have essentially two choices in front of us — we could be either marketing-driven or market-driven.
Being marketing-driven means to be focused on our marketing schemes and tactics. But as Seth Godin puts it — its a dead-end. Because no amount of glamourous marketing can make a product reach the masses if it doesn’t truly resonate with them. Not to mention the fact that it isn’t very cost effective either.
Alternatively, we can be market-driven instead, which essentially refers to marketing that not only understand and responds to but also influences the market. This is the kind of marketing that brings about a change — in society, in culture, in people.
Who’s it for and what’s it for are the two questions that must guide all of our decisions.
Therefore, as a marketer we must keep in mind the people we intend to serve and their personal narratives in order to bring about the change we wish to achieve.
If one goes in with the assumption that people make rational and well-informed choices based on their long term benefits and that people know what they know and want what they want, then they are most definitely mistaken as more often than not, everyone is irrational.
You. Me. Everyone.
