What makes a highly effective marketer?("The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Marketers")

A marketing formula with seven key components offers a winning strategy for improved organizational performance.

The business world has experienced incredible change over the past few years: The growth of the Internet, the proliferation of new products, the globalization of business, the lightning speed of technological innovation--in addition to the changes arising from the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Consequently, today's marketplace is far different from what it was a decade, or even five years, ago. Some companies have been left behind--dotcoms such as eToys and Pets.com as well as established companies such as Smith-Corona and Weiner's Department Stores. But others have flourished--Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, South-west Airlines, and even a few Internet firms such as e-Bay, Wine.com and Yahoo! Although many factors contribute to business failure or business success, a major factor in either is the effectiveness of the marketing programs carried out by companies. Some companies do a good job of marketing--others do not.

What makes some companies better marketers than others? What do highly effective marketers do to achieve their successes? Based on research and consulting projects the author has undertaken over the past two decades, and from personal observations of companies' marketing practices, seven key success factors for marketing have been identified. These seven factors are what effective marketers appear to be successfully using today. Borrowing semantically from Stephen R. Covey, (1) these success factors are called "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Marketers."

This article presents these habits, as well as some examples of how each is used. It is hoped that managers of businesses and nonprofit organizations will find these observations helpful in planning and implementing successful marketing programs during the upcoming years of increasingly rapid change.

Habit Number One: They are Customer-Oriented

There is no principle more closely associated with what marketing should be about than focusing on the needs of the customer. Although many people falsely associate marketing with the fast-talking telemarketer trying to sell aluminum siding to the elderly, the truth is that the goal of marketing, in its purist form, is to satisfy customers. The classic quote from Philip Kotler still holds true today: "The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous ... to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service ... sells itself." (2)

Marketing begins with finding out what customers want or need, developing that product. informing customers about it, then making it available to them. The business world is full of examples of products that have been successful, not because of "slick selling," but because someone found out what people needed and then provided it to them.

On a recent trip to Tokyo, the author was extremely impressed with the rapid growth and current market pervasiveness of the leading mobile communications company in Japan- NTT DoCoMo. Established as a separate company within the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) group in 1992, NTT DoCoMo has truly revolutionized the Japanese telecommunications industry. In 1999 the company began offering mobile Internet ("I-mode") services and phones throughout Japan. The company has successfully tapped into the young, mobile Japanese market segment with the means for calling or e-mailing friends, making ticket reservations, viewing restaurant guides, paying bills, making banking transactions, buying stock, viewing maps, downloading the newest songs, shopping, and accessing various other Web sites. And the best part of all is that NTT DoCoMo has enlisted 45,000 Internet sites while maintaining a policy of not paying anything to a site provider. Today NTT DoCoMo has over 20 million Japanese subscribers and is en joying double digit growth and profitability by offering exactly what this large market segment wanted, and continuing to improvise and offer the newest sites as they become available.

Habit Number Two: They Know What's Happening

To make wise decisions, highly effective marketers require detailed information from a number of sources. To manage this information, companies usually have a marketing information system comprising at least three parts:

1. a market intelligence component that monitors the business environment;

2. an internal marketing information system that provides up-to-the-minute data on such important items as customer transactions, inventory levels, costs, prices, and accounts payable and receivable; and

3. a market research component that conducts market research studies on topics of particular interest to marketing management.

One company that has done a very good job of getting the right kind of information, then planning and implementing effective marketing programs, is Chick-fil-A. The Atlanta-based quick-serve restaurant exceeded $1 billion in sales in 2001--double what it did just six years ago. A key part of its success has been its marketing research program.

In the early 1990s Chick-fil-A developed a brand equity model that considers all types of customers-from the loyal customer to the person who has never even heard of Chick-fil-A. For the entire spectrum of customers, the company gathers various types of data including ad awareness, brand awareness, frequency of usage, how they rate the experience, intent to re turn, and whether Chick-fil-A is one of their favorite quick-service providers. According to Steven Robinson, senior vice president of marketing, the company conducts research once a year in each of its 28 major markets, and four times a year in each store. (3) The firm's marketing plans grow out of this research.

One of the most successful marketing campaigns for Chick-fil-A has been its "cow campaign." For over six years, the forlorn and self-centered cows in the company's advertising have been providing Americans with essentially three reasons to eat at Chick-fil-A: "It's good for you, it tastes good, and it's not us." This campaign grew out of the company's research that showed customers being happy with the Chick-fil-A experience, but not holding the brand in very high regard relative to the competition. The company decided to use a fun approach to build its brand image and the campaign resulted in a significant improvement in brand awareness and brand image, and a dramatic increase in brand equity. In 2001 the traditionally mall-based company surpassed 1,000 units as it continued branching out into hospitals, airports, and freestanding stores--the profitable result of knowing what's happening in the marketplace.

Habit Number Three: They are Different

Highly effective marketers differentiate their products from everyone else's. This differentiating feature is sometimes called the company's "sustainable competitive advantage." If a business doesn't have one, it won't be around long.

There are many bases for a sustainable competitive advantage. The two most common are high quality and low cost. Consumer brands such as BMW and Rolex have achieved sustainable competitive advantages based on quality, while Southwest Airlines and Wal-Mart have successfully differentiated themselves on the basis of low cost.

Southwest Airlines has done an excellent job through the years in differentiating itself in a highly competitive industry. Begun in 1971 as a strictly regional airline serving only three Texas cities--Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio-the regional-becoming-more-national-every-day-airline has been successful in every new market it has entered. It now operates out of 58 airports from Los Angeles to Baltimore. Southwest Airlines has developed a highly effective system for keeping costs down and keeping key services up. Although other airlines have tried to duplicate the Southwest model, none has yet been successful. The following are some of the components of Southwest's model:

* No meals on flights

* Only one type of plane (Boeing 737)

* Cities' number two airports are preferred

* No travel agent bookings

* High frequency between key cities

* Short-haul flights

* No tickets

* No assigned seating

* High pilot flight load

* Short airport turnaround times

The results have been impressive. Southwest Airlines has the lowest seat-per-mile cost in the airline industry and routinely records the highest customer satisfaction scores in the industry. As a result, Southwest Airlines is the only major airline to report 28 consecutive years of profitability. Southwest is a truly effective marketer that has successfully differentiated itself in the marketplace.

Habit Number Four: They Communicate

The most visible marketing function, and the one with which marketing is most associated, is marketing communication. The expression "Madison Avenue." that is commonly used to refer to general marketing practices, has its origin as the name of the street on which many New York City advertising agencies were located. Communication efforts are the observable signs of the various marketing activities being carried out in a company.

One of the most effective advertising campaigns in recent years is built around the three words. "Like a Rock."

In 1991, the Chevrolet truck division of General Motors had a major image problem. Although engineering tests showed that the Chevy truck was one of the most dependable and well-built on the market, consumers did not perceive it that way. Marketing research studies consistently showed that Chevy trucks were perceived as "wimpy" and as the least dependable. least durable trucks on the market. Without substantially changing anything about the product, the company instead radically changed its communication approach or advertising strategy. The Campbell-Ewald advertising agency came up with the perfect solution for the product's image problem-Bob Seger, his 1984 original composition "Like a Rock," -and captivating visual images demonstrating the ruggedness of the Chevy truck.

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