Incomplete marketing is dangerous, while being obsessive about competition is even more so
Jagdeep Kapoor
Many marketers focus only on competing and they are unduly obsessive about competition. In the process, they forget to do complete marketing. This could lead to poor results, de-focus and wrong priorities.
What do I mean by ‘complete’?
Everyone knows that complete means having or including all parts, with nothing missing. Complete marketing also means the same — having all parts of marketing being paid attention to, with nothing missing.
But how is it that some marketers land up with incomplete marketing? The reason is, instead of doing complete marketing and taking care of all the parts of marketing for their brand, they end up getting obsessed with competition. Instead of ‘attracting’ consumers to their brand, they end up ‘distracting’ themselves, by looking at competition.
There is nothing wrong in trying to compete or analyse competition. But making that the main purpose of marketing can lead marketers to do incomplete marketing, because their attention has been moved away.
What does compete mean? It means to try to be better than somebody else, while trying to win or achieve something. There is nothing wrong with that. But, by doing only that and ignoring the process of doing complete marketing by missing out parts could negatively affect marketing results for your brand.
The question which arises now is: what are the parts I should consider to perform complete marketing? I would recommend my ‘five wives and one husband’ module. The five wives are the five Ws – Why, Who, What, Where, When. And the one husband is ‘How’?
Let me explain.
To be able to achieve complete marketing, you need to begin with the ‘why’ — the first ‘W’. Why does the consumer need this product service category? Thus, identifying or creating the need is the starting point. Understanding the ‘why’ explains the consumers’ needs. If there is a need, there is a market. If there is no need, there is no market.
Many marketers try to replicate or copy a competitors’ product or service or even try to better it, because their focus is on the competition and not on the consumer. In my opinion, the focus should be on the need of the consumer — the ‘why’ — which is so significant and important. Without understanding the need of the consumer, you cannot do ‘complete’ marketing.
The second ‘W’ is who – which is the next part to achieve complete marketing. It is important to understand segmentation. Who is your consumer? Who is your target audience? If you have not understood that or defined that, then you are miles away from complete marketing.
Trying to go after the same set of consumers that competition goes after may not be a wise strategy. It is possible that your target audience is similar to that of the competition, but it is also possible that you may be looking at a totally different segment – maybe with a little bit of an overlap. It is also possible that the competition is going into the wrong segment and you are blindly following the competition.
You need to think for yourself. You need to define your segment and have it clearly defined. Who is your consumer? Without a target audience or clear definition of segmentation, it is not possible to achieve complete marketing. It is possible that you may be addressing an existing segment, or even creating a new segment.
If IndiGo Airlines would go only after an existing segment of flyers, it would not be having the 64 per cent market share it now has and be so profitable. It created its own segment of what I call ‘never used’ consumers – those who have never travelled in an aircraft – and penetrated the market, grew the market and had a dedicated, never-ending supply of first-time flyers.
They moved towards complete marketing and did not only blindly look at competition or follow competition. Complete marketing requires a clarity of target audience and segmentation.
The third ‘W’ is ‘what’. This W brings out clearly: what is it that you are offering in terms of product or service? Unless this is clear, you cannot achieve complete marketing.
This of course is linked to the need, which could be ‘existing’ or ‘created’ — what I call a ‘latent need’ or, shall we say, a ‘blatant need’.
What is being offered is critical to achieve complete marketing. Is it unique? Is it different? Is it the first one? Is it the only one? Does it address the need gap? Without ‘what’, it would be incomplete marketing.
The fourth W is where. Choosing your target market and your geographical priorities are essential to achieve complete marketing. It should be well-thought-out and consider the pros and cons.
That is how the geographical markets should be chosen.
Without ‘where’, your marketing plan cannot be complete. It has implications in terms of how you would communicate, in which language? No understanding of the culture and the customs and the practices in that geographical area would make your market incomplete. Blindly following someone else may not be a sensible strategy.
Further, the target market has its own features and challenges, which should be duly considered to achieve complete marketing.
The fifth W is when. Timing is important. When should you launch? A recent example in the paints industry is of Birla Opus. The paints market has witnessed intense competition, with a number of new entrants coming in the last few years. Never before has there been such furious activity as has been seen in the recent past in the paints market. In India, there has been a jump of almost 40 per cent additional capacity, in the paints industry. Mergers & acquisitions, new entrants and exits, buyouts, et al, are happening in this industry.
People wonder whether it would be sensible to enter the market of paints with a new brand, when there is such a lot of activity. In my opinion, the entry of Birla Opus was at the right time.
When there is a churn in the market, it is a good time for a new entrant to launch its product. The results have been good and Birla has managed to be among the few players who are at the top in the paint industry. Though there was a huge amount of competition, Birla Opus focussed on the consumer and the trade and moved towards complete marketing. It chose to complete and not just compete.
Now, we come to how. For achieving complete marketing – not just strategising, but also executing well – the manner and the method in which you do your marketing would lead to complete marketing.
While all your other elements could be in place and could be well designed and well thought out and well planned, how you execute it is equally important. The strategy on the ground, as well as in communication, is going to lead to complete marketing and thereafter complete success.
You would think that all that I have mentioned above in terms of complete marketing is quite obvious. In marketing, in my experience, the obvious often gets left out. You need to go to basics all over again, if you want to achieve complete marketing. Hence, my recommendation is: complete, don’t just compete.
