The beginning seems like a good place to start. That is why sometimes, when starting an executive seminar on the subject of Marketing, we do an exercise trying to substitute said term for another that transmits, in essence, the same idea that the participants have, a priori, of what to do. they signify this activity.
The terms obtained are many and sometimes surprising, but mainly the list helps to identify concepts and clarify the real meaning of business work when it is truly focused on customers. In any case, the exercise predisposes participants to accept a paradigm shift, something that is very important for organizations today.
Service, attention, promotion, communication, marketing, sales, transaction and even barter are frequent candidates to replace the word Marketing. The list grows when we allow to make the substitution with two or more terms, although it is really difficult to express in three words everything that we know that Marketing includes, as well as at the same time leaving out everything that should not be included.
But do we really need a new definition of Marketing?
The answer is yes and no. What we need is to replace the old conceptual definitions with a new operational definition that allows us to act in a manner consistent with a business orientation that guarantees the success of the company in the market.
A conceptual definition is one that defines a concept on the basis of other concepts, in the manner of a dictionary. For example, Philip Kotler proposes the following:
Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through the creation, offer and exchange of products of value.
This is a definition that we can read, understand, and memorize; some people may be able to rely on it to work: create valuable products, offer them and exchange them with others. However, most people would not know how to act managerially to carry out exchanges of value with individuals and groups.
By the way, the keywords in this definition are exactly those two, exchange and value.
An operational definition establishes the sequence of events that must take place for a concept to exist or occur in practice. In other words, to define Marketing operationally, we must answer the question, what must we do in practice to carry out value exchanges?
This question can be asked in many ways. For example, we might treat it as the matter of developing an ongoing business relationship with the company's customers. Thus, we are not only talking about Marketing but we have added a very important condition: the continuity of the relationship. We could add others, such as the quality of the relationship, or the satisfaction that results from it for both parties, but we are going to focus our attention on a simpler question.
What should we do in practice to develop a continuous business relationship with the company's customers, based on value exchanges?
The answer constitutes an operational definition of Marketing that is beginning to be accepted by more and more colleagues of mine, recognized practitioners and academics in this field, who we take from a group of Tec de Monterrey students: understanding to serve. They are three words that contain all the meaning we want to convey and lead us directly to two fundamental actions: understanding the customer, to serve the customer.
It is impossible to choose only one of the two actions. It is impossible to decide which of the two is more important, or which one to assign a greater or lesser operating budget. One without the other reduces the possibility of adding value to the exchange and therefore reduces the probability of success in an ongoing business relationship.
The fact that we have operationally defined, through two specific actions, the Marketing activity does not guarantee per se that we will act accordingly or have a true customer orientation. To do this, it is necessary to link the definition to transcendent values that encourage us to work congruently with the definition and consistent with it over time.
There are two values implicit in our definition and they are the two essential values of leadership. Understanding the customer is something related to sensitivity. Take care of it, it is something related to flexibility. The people we consider to be leaders are undoubtedly sensitive and flexible. Those whom we least appreciate sin to a greater or lesser degree of insensitivity and inflexibility. Arrogance, in one word.
With companies, moral persons after all, exactly the same will happen. Those that manage to understand the market requirements with all sensitivity and are able with all flexibility to adapt their solution offer to these requirements, will be successful.
Being sensitive and being flexible, two values for leadership.
