“Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation” ~ Peter Drucker.
Since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2007, the necessity of building new businesses or reinvigorating existing ones has become a serious concern to stakeholders and the society at large.
Imagine the reality of the first lesson of limited resources and alternative uses in basic economics becoming rather overwhelming and how Charles Darwin’s “Survival of the fittest” model x-rays the vulnerabilities of the marketplace.
This reveals, in a way, that businesses with the desire to grow need to be fit to survive or eaten up in the highly turbulent corporate waters.
As tacit as the composite of the DNA of a successful business appears, it is best expressed explicitly with the base word: Marketing.
In the beginning of one research work, I expressed distaste on how many companies’ marketing campaign often end up merely as a new advertising and promotional activity when a radical overhaul is the necessary thing to do.
In his book Marketing Management, Philip Kotler explains that Marketing management is “the art and science of applying core marketing concepts to choose target markets and get, keep, and grow customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value.”
The point of emphasis here is that marketing begins at the manufacturing stage of businesses or let’s state more categorically that Marketing is the beginning and the end of the business process.
It starts with the process of “creation” and ends at the point of “exchange.” Therefore, the argument proceeds that an effective marketing will translate into successful business.
One good example of top class marketing innovation became apparent in the highly competitive brewing industry in Nigeria lately. Albeit, the competition seem confined to two big firms: Nigerian Breweries and Guinness Nigeria.
While Guinness concentrated more on her premium stout brand, Nigerian Breweries expanded the market with increased “value segment” products. After holding a sizeable market share with established brands like Star, Gulder and co., it was the ripe time to box Guinness out of its competitive advantage zone of stout brewing. NBL spent ample resources in brewing Legend. Somehow, their marketing prowess soon caught my attention–starting with the name Legend – which I feel could be exploited to the maximum.
I expect to see campaigns with imageries and messages depicting the concept that could make a brand loyalist feel like a Legend each time he orders for one – an idea with a strong value-expressive appeal that can influence my hardworking and fun loving countrymen.
Such is the identical climax of many innovation stories. It follows to add that there’s no excuse for failure.
To be quite emphatic, what today’s business needs is the ability to search for new ideas or new ways of rendering game changing solutions.
Rex Showunmi
