[Marketing] Final Course Reflection
Dear Ms Phương,
Before this course, I literally have no idea what marketing is all about. Well, maybe I know just a little. But back then, I believed that doing marketing means the same thing as featuring TVCs and having employees hanging around, distributing samples and leaflets, and asking people to fill out the forms.
Before this course, I only had that in mind. Therefore, I had no interest in marketing or having my future career plan involved in any of those.
Before showing you what I have learned through this course, I would love to tell you the journey that change my attitude towards the marketing field.
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Back then, in 2015 I supposed, I bought a ticket to the conference called Global Citizenships held by UNESCO VN. At that conference, I was lucky to have Mr. Phan Hải as my mentor. I barely knew him at that time. I happened to see his facebook account one day and started to follow him. I found out that he is the founder of Xanh Agency later on. All his posts back then were so personal that I could hardly get the idea of what he was actually trying to convey. He did talk about marketing and things that are related, but quite rare. At that time, I had such little knowledge about marketing to understand even half of what he said and the terms that he used. Therefore, it had such little effect on me.
That was my first encounter with marketing.
About a year later, while I was wandering around a bookstore. Something caught my attention. A cover was full of doodling patterns. I was excited. A thing that combines my two favorite things: reading and drawing. I picked it up and read the title. "Ý tưởng này là của chúng ta". Ms Phương :)) I think it would be my fault if I mention the author here, because you are so familiar with him :)) So, I'll skip that.
The book is full of his thought about marketing. He didn't make it hard to understand. He described it through an unusual interesting kind of way. And I was stunt for a moment by his style of telling stories and by the way he could turn things that are supposed to be boring and 'dry' into something special and beautiful. I was excited. It was like, his definitions and examples had blown a fresh wind into my mind. Thanks to him, I know that marketing is more than just a paper, a line or an advertising. Marketing is everywhere. He could turn anything into marketing and make funny tales about it. Thanks to him, I know a little more about the terms and what it's like to do marketing.
Just that, that was the first time I heard of Sói Ăn Chay. But that wasn't enough to boost my motivation to search for any further information about marketing. After reading that book, I just thought that "Hey, marketing is quite interesting, not bad as I thought".
My latest encounter with marketing was when I bought the book "Làm bạn với hình, làm tình với chữ", written by Bút Chì. I didn't know who was the people behind the nickname Bút Chì but I guessed that must be Mr. Nguyễn Tiến Huy. I guessed that because he was a friend of Mr. Phan Hải and I stalked his FB page, too. I discovered that he was related to the nickname by using so many 'pencil' word in his hashtag. The first time I read the title, I was shocked. It was something that I didn't expect. "I know that people nowadays are more open to sex, but is it necessary to publicly mention it like that", that's what I thought. While reading the book, I was scared of the thought that people might judge me by the title of its. I couldn't enjoy the book fully. I realized then that it was just a saying, it was just an act of playing with word and that was totally normal. When I realized that, I told myself that that was nothing, that was just a beginning, and things could require more in this field, so if I want to enter, I should not be taken aback like that. I don't know if you have read it or not. But the book is more about copy writer than just marketing in general. It is more specific. To be brief, it gives me the overall look at who a copy writer is, what kinds of job that a copy writer does and the very basic step to be a copy writer. It helps me a lot. In many ways. I read this book during the course with you, so it partly guides me to decide my career path. I am more serious in marketing than I was before. I am not sure whether I will do marketing after I graduated or not. But I am sure that it is what I care about at the moment.
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To be true, I like stories. And up till now, to me, marketing is so much more a story than to just be a tool to boost sale and play tricks. I like simple things, things that I can related to and can understand. Not so many theories. I can totally understand your lectures in class but I don't know how to express that, however; I'll try my best. Please kindly consider this as a thought of a student who is fresh with marketing and kindly leave out the mistakes if that is possible.
To me, doing marketing is like taking care of a baby.
Let's talk about the Marketing Process.
First, you have to understand your 'marketplace' which is now, the baby's mind and understand what your 'customer' 's wants and needs. The customer, which is now the baby, in need of care, love and protection. You then, fulfilling the needs and wants of a baby by offering tangible (toys, milk bottles, or playpens,..) or intangible products (hugs, kisses, whispering, singing songs,...). However, be careful or you will end up with marketing myopia. You thought the baby wants milk, so you only let him drink milk. But what the baby needs is to fulfill his stomach with any edible suitable things.
You will then, move to the second stage, design a customer-driven marketing strategy. You then, try to answer these two questions: What customers will we serve? (which is the baby) and How can we serve these customers best (what's our value proposition)? (by offering our times, our tender and love to the baby). Then, come the real question Why should the 'customer' buy your brand than a competitors? In this situation, let's imagine that this is a competition between a mom and a dad, fighting for the attention and the love of the baby. So, that makes each of them the other's competitor. Back to the case, the mom offers love and tender care to the child which is can hardly be found with a dad so that is her value proposition, which differentiate and position her in the baby's mind. Then, we need to choose a marketing strategy. Let's say we choose the marketing concept. We now focus on finding the right product for the customers rather than finding the right customers for our products. We listen, observe and approach the baby to see what he needs and wants rather than just offering things that we believe that the baby will need.
Next, we will come to the third stage, preparing an integrated marketing plan and program. Here is the stage where we apply the marketing mix (4Ps). Product (basic need of a baby), price (little or cost nothing if the baby is nice or well-behave), place (mostly at home), promotion (extra snacks or milk if the baby is exceptionally well-behave). The important thing in this stage is that we need to communicate and deliver the right value to the baby.
Now, let's come to the fourth stage, building relationships with customers. This is the most important step in winning the competition. (mom fighting for the love of the baby with the dad). In order to win, mommy has to have good customer-perceived value, in which she can lead the baby in the way that she wants. To attain customer satisfaction, mommy can offer toys, love, songs,.. depending on the situation that the baby is in need of those. For example, toys - when the baby is bored and need something entertains, love - when the baby is sad, songs - when the baby needs to fall asleep. Sometimes, mommy can create customer delight by driving baby to parks, playgrounds and toys stores, or simply doing things that out of their expectations. However, mommy needs to be careful in creating customer delight as the higher the bar is set, the harder it is to cross.
Here we are, at the final stage of the process, capturing value from the customers. If mommy wins, she will have customer loyalty and retention, maybe for a lifetime value. For example, when the baby grows up, if there's an argument between mommy and daddy, the child, then, will take mommy's side. Or when hearing someone talks bad about his mom, the child will defense and protect his mom's reputation.
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Thank you Ms Phương for having such patience and thank you for bearing until now. I hope my small note of reflection will at least make you laugh :)
Thank you once again, Ms Phương. I hope you will like it.
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