Wednesday, 21 September 2016

The Many Levels of "Marketing"

In this post I’m using the word “Marketing” in the sense of “selling”.  Most large businesses have “Marketing” departments whose job is to understand consumer trends, the business’ customers and products and come up with ways of selling.  In a small business, this function usually falls under the owner.

Whatever the case, some people may not appreciate the different foci of “marketing”.  Much time is spent on the consumer, i.e. the person or people who buy that business’ products or services.  More enlightened businesses have also begun to realise that they need to “market” themselves to potential employees (some are highly successful at this). 

After this, it’s a different story.  “Stakeholder Management” is now a key issue and businesses have a much more complicated life.  To help, I suggest to my clients that they look at “internal” and “external” stakeholders.

“Internal stakeholders” include:
  • All staff and their families
  • Management
  • Board of Directors
“External” stakeholders could be:

  • Customers and customer groups
  • Suppliers/contractors
  • Regulators
  • Banks
  • Government
  • Tax authorities
  • Law enforcement authorities
  • Emergency services
  • The local and/or international community
  • Media
  • Freight forwarders
  • The environment
… anyone else who is impacted directly or indirectly by the business and its actions.

The list can grow fairly long with little effort, especially as regulation becomes a more dominant part of life.

When discussing this list with clients, they’re usually surprised by the number of different “touch points” that they have.  The next stage is to identify how best to manage those stakeholders and allocate responsibilities.  Small businesses will naturally be limited by resources, but not the larger ones.  As the use of social media now gives anyone and everyone the ability to vent their feelings, it’s all-too easy to find your business in the spotlight for the wrong reasons…

Have you identified your different stakeholders and decided how you're going to work with them?


I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world  running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to offer solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.


  

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posted by William Martin @ 10:47

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