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Everything is Marketing and Marketing is Everything

Article  in  The Marketing Review · June 2012

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Dr. Praveen Pillai

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Everything is ... MARKETING... is everything
“Marketing” seems to mean different things to different people. Perhaps no other
business function is more misunderstood than that of marketing. Most businesses
view marketing as simply a fancy advertisement or a new company catalogues, while
others may think of the circulars and coupons they get in their Friday paper. Many
also think of the spam in their inboxes and the junk mail the mailman delivers every
day. In reality all these views are correct, but marketing is much, much more.

MARKETING is virtually everything a company does whether conscious of it or not,

from the logo on its letterhead to what the staffs wears&even to whether the
uniformed personnel keep their shirts tucked in. Marketing even spans across all
aspects of the business, and across all customer contact points including how your
team members answer the phone, to every email that leaves the office, to a
conversation in a hallway, even the comments you make in online forums, the speed
of your computers, the presentation of your website,how you manage your
customers including the efficiency and kindness employed when a customer calls
with a question or complaint and potentially even the car that you drive has an
impact on your customer and is a marketing opportunity.

People will often tell that "marketing is everything." And it's true also. The success of
a business relies on how well you market your product or service. Every experience
customers have or belief they hold about your business has been crafted by your
products and employees. From the product engineers, the financial analysts, even
the warehouse managers -contributes to how customers perceive a brand. In that
sense, everything they do is marketing.

But what many peoplefail to realize is that while marketing is everything, everything
is marketing! Marketing isn’t a department, it’s the sum total of everything you do, it’s
every interaction that you have with any human being on the planet, because each
one of those people is either a current or potential customer. Everyone is going to
form an impression of your business; if you aren’t creating an impression proactively,
then it will occur by default and that may not be the preferred one. So it’s just a
question of how actively you are participating in the creation of that impression.

From your customer’s perspective, marketing is what they see every day relating to
the products and services. People make choices based on their perceptions. In other
words, the way they perceive something will dictate their actions. If they see value in
something, they will invest in it their time and/or money, if they don't see value; they
will invest their time and/or money elsewhere. Marketing is the process of influencing
perceptions to create value. Since marketing is the process of influencing
perceptions and everything you do influences perceptions, you're always marketing.
 As Kate Lister said in the July 2010 issue of Entrepreneur magazine, "A great
marketing strategy beats a great product every time. Business owners can (and will)
go on and on about their wonderful products or services. The successful ones spend
their time scheming about who's going to buy it and how they're going to reach them.
Products don't sell, marketing does."

If you have a great product or a special service to offer people; how do you get them
to buy it? You tell them about it, you tell them how great it is, and you let them know
how it will benefit their lives. Marketing is an important part of any business. Without
it, there is no way for people to know what you have to offer.

In case you've ever wondered whether it’s even necessary to market our business in
the first place, I would like to share this simple story that says it all:

Once there was a couple struggling to make a living with their hot dog stand by the
side of the road. Trucks and cars would whiz by without even a glance despite the
fact that their hot dogs were fresh and tasty and their coffee was the best in the
entire area. It was very difficult to support themselves and their young son.

One day the wife got a bright idea. “Why not market ourselves? We can put up a big
sign and also put our message on billboards. We can even spend some money on
the local radio stations extolling the virtues of our great food.”

Before they knew it, trucks and cars were stopping by and business was booming.
They enlarged the stand and hired many people to accommodate the traffic. They
stayed open seven days a week, 24 hours a day and made more money than they
ever thought possible. It was the American Dream comes true.

Business stayed good and they grew the business into a chain. Eventually, their son
grew up and went to college. He studied hard and earned an economics degree. His
delighted parents took him into the business with a fancy title and office to match.

Their clever son studied the general business conditions and surveys of the future by
the most reputable people in the nation. He finally concluded: “We are headed for a
recession, and possibly a depression.”

He discussed this with his parents and convinced them that his training would now
pay off. “Let’s stop advertising and save the money, and when things change we’ll be
in good shape again.”The signs came down, radio commercials stopped and trucks
and cars whizzed by as they did before the company started promoting. Business
worsened, with the chain dwindling to one stand. Finally, bankrupt, the last stand
was also shut down.

As the father sat with his wife one hour before closing he couldn’t help but think to
himself: “My son was really right; we are in a depression.”

Moral: You can’t sell it if you don’t show it or tell anyone about it. If you don’t
tell your story – and tell it well – everything else falls apart. It’s been proven again
and again that those who market when business conditions are slow are way ahead
when it gets better.
In the dental practice, there are two parts to successful marketing; external and
internal.The purpose of external marketing is to create enough perceived value that
patients will choose to invest their time and money with your practice. The most
important part of your external marketing therefore, is to convey a compelling
message that differentiates your practice from other options and helps patients see
the unique value you offer. Keep in mind that the process of influencing perceptions
with external marketing is also the process of setting expectations. How you tell your
story will determine not only if someone chooses you, but also sets the expectations
they bring with them on their first visit. In order to set the right expectations, your
external message should capitalize on the strengths of your practice and convey the
unique experience that you offer. This leads us to internal marketing.

If your external marketing was done correctly, it has created true perceptions of the
unique experience you offer and set high expectations based on your strengths. This
will help get people in the front door. It's what happens next however, that will
determine the ultimate success of your practice. Your patients will be happy with
their experience with you if you can meet their expectations, or even better, exceed
them. The more value you can add to a patient's experience, the more likely you are
to exceed their expectations and create loyal customers. Whenever someone is
unhappy with your practice it is because their expectations were not met. While it is
impossible to always meet everyone's expectations, you should look at it as your
responsibility to set expectations and understand them. This gives you the best
opportunity to ensure you meet expectations.

There are three essential ingredients to exceeding expectations.

First you have to understand what your patients are expecting and what they are
looking for in their experience with you. In order to do this, it helps to know the
message you are conveying in your external efforts. Since it is these efforts that are
determining their expectations, it is important that all the employees internally
understand the external marketing messaging so they can reinforce the messaging
in your practice. Reinforcing the external marking internally helps put people at ease
and helps them feel confident about their choice.

Second, you need to be constantly looking for ways to add value to their experience.
This can be as simple as looking for ways to make the patient more comfortable, or
helping them better understand your policies, adding convenience tools to your
website, or even creating a social network that helps build a community with your
patients. This can also include patient giveaways, customer service and good follow-
through.

Third, ensure consistent customer feedback. Honest feedback on how you are doing
can help you understand your strengths and weaknesses. This allows you to exploit
your strengths and recognize and fix your weaknesses. When your customers feel
like you're listening, it helps them feel like you are doing everything you can to meet
their expectations. If you can consistently meet or exceed your patients' expectations
you will have happy patients. Happy patients become loyal patients. Loyal patients
are ideal patients. They trust you; they pay their bills, accept their treatment plans
and keep their appointments. Finally, loyal patients are the most likely to refer others
to your practice.
 You can see that even though the marketing process starts with your external
marketing efforts, it is what you do internally that will ultimately determine the loyalty
of your patients and the quantity and quality of your referrals. All your marketing
efforts help to set the right expectations, help meet or exceed expectations, and form
the foundation to create loyal patients and an effective referral program.

Marketing is a sophisticated combination of being in the right place at the right time
with the right product and is arguably the most important aspect of business
growth.Prospects won’t know what you make, so they won’t buy it. If they don’t buy,
there’ll be no floor to sweep. No need to buy coffee cups. And no invoices to send
out.

By knowing your community, offering a unique and distinct product and tailoring your
promotions to your particular business philosophy, a successful marketing strategy
can mean the difference between business won or lost and ultimately whether a
company is able to connect with its customers. Without your marketing (and the
requisite second half; the sale) you’ll have nothing.To conclude, everything is
marketing… and YES, Marketing is everything to the success of your practice.

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