The martial art of marketing

As someone who has always been passionate for "marketing as an art”, author attempts to describe the martial art of marketing, the hidden skills and art which good marketers should have. Having said this the blog does not attempt to write the obvious ones like good communication skills, better negotiation power blah,blah,blah(these are the fundamental requirements & no one can be a good marketer without them)

• A marketer has to be a great "Mind Reader": A marketer has to be great in reading mind of other's. Marketing is such a profession where one is exposed to end no. of people ranging from customers, suppliers, clients, channel members etc. He is never independent in making decisions which depend heavily on the other factor mentioned above; hence he has to read the mind of others beforehand to craft his game plan.

• A marketer has to be a good actor: As discussed in the above point he has to communicate with a lot of people. Many a times his job includes a lot of negotiations, communications & other related stuffs, has to don many hats at the same time, many a times has to pretend things. For all such a good acting skill is a prerequisite.(May be that’s why all the great marketers in India such as Bharat dabholkar, Alyque Padamsee, Sohail seth etc have background in theatre)

• A marketer should be creative with his computer skills: Marketers are suppose to give lot of presentations, many a times in front of people who might not have much of the subject related knowledge. Under such situation what does matter is not content but the creative aspects of the presentation.

• Knowledge of music is an add on: Marketing requires a lot of networking with people. It had been seen that music (includes all the three parts, dancing, singing and instruments) is a great tool in helping people do networking with others.

• An indulgence with various forms of art helps one understand and evaluate alternatives: Marketing is such a profession where one needs to have the hunch of understanding and evaluating available alternatives, needs to have the insight to think beyond the obvious. Having an interest in various forms of art such as acting, music, and writing can help you hone these required skills. (Because the world of art is something that attempts to look at the world in its alternative form)

Though marketing has its own analytical and mathematical sides but the author believes primarily it’s an "ART" or rather a "Martial Art" where one needs to don many hats at the same time, use the best of the available techniques, the realm of human psychology has a very important role to play and creativity is the best weapon to attract and stimulate someone. Due to all these things marketing requires individuals to be well aware (and if possible well equipped) with different facets of art.

Blogs have edge over Books

                                                                 

The author is of the opinion that in the realm of management following a good blog might be much fruitful than reading a management book. Though there are many reasons for that but fundamentally it’s the very basic nature of blogs and books that gives advantage to the blog over the books.These can be summed as follows:-


• Blogs are always latest and books are always old:- One must understand that the realm of business management is very dynamic and changes very fast. It takes many years to write a book,hence a book can never be latest,by the time a book undergoes its idea phase and by the time it comes to publication there is always a gap of few years .Even the latest of the books will talk about something that had taken place some 4-5 years back. In contrast to this a blog is always latest,fresh and captures the present situation in a better way.

• Blogs are to the point where as books have a high degree of redundancy:- Blogs are always to the point but on the other hand books have high degree of redundancy. A book needs to be of few hundred pages, as a result of which even if the author does not want he has to repeat certain stuffs end no. of times. This makes the book boring after some time.

• Comments add value to blog:- Comments add lot of value to a blog,it helps in understanding it better,gives additional information and can also add counter views. No such facility is available in book.(Though these days stuffs like book reviews can be of some help but they cannot be as instant as comments)

• A blog has a very high degree of variability where as books are generally written on a single idea:- An author can write an end no. of posts on various issues on the same blog.Thus following such blogs give eclectic knowledge. In contrast just take any management book such as Positionong,Judo Strategy,Hard Ball etc and you will see that it’s the same central idea that keeps on repeating itself.


• Blogs are small ,books are too large:- last but not the least books are so large that one has to think twice whether to go for it or not, in contrast blogs are small enough to at least not de motivate you from reading it.

(Well having said this author will like state few facts based on his experience:-
1> One should not jump directly to blogs. Initially one should try to read few good books first
2> The given analysis is more applicable for business management related stuffs.
3> Views are personal)

Disadvatanges of being too Mathematical in Approach

                                                                                                                                                                
In the present world of management there is too much of reliance on mathematical and analytical thinking. As someone who tries to observe managerial sphere with a very keen perception the author, does not find this trend very appealing. Now before doing a thorough analysis it will be good if the point be made very clear that there is no grudge against mathematics in general and the author also admits the fact that these are of extreme significance for management as an approach but the ongoing trend where it is infiltrating into each and every aspect of managerial thinking, is something that needs a revisit. The reason for this goes as follows:-

1> In Mathematics 2+2=4, in reality it is not the case. In real world business scenario 2+2 might be 4, 3,5 or even 14 or -4. Mathematical tools are too much mechanical in approach, now having a robust mechanical model in practice makes things very easy to understand and can be comprehended easily by the takers but one must understand that might be far away from what might happen in reality. Just because a mathematical model is robust enough does not guarantee that it will be correct also.

2> It kills the qualitative approach of a manager:- For a successful manager it is essential that he should be well versed with qualitative as well quantitative approaches. But relying too much on the quantitative approach and using a quantitative framework for each and every managerial situation might undermine the qualitative approach in some one.

3> Mathematical models cannot go beyond the obvious: - One must understand that any analytical or mathematical model always considers the available and existing frameworks. But is some one really wants achieve a major breakthrough he needs to think beyond the obvious which is not possible by depending on mathematical thinking approach. One must understand that something like a Ford's "T model", Southwest’s low cost aviation service, Toyota’s "Just in Time" were not the outcome of some mathematical thinking. They were purely based on the ability to think beyond the obvious, to understand the latent demand of the customers, to catch the hidden loopholes in the system and these abilities really don’t come with mathematical thinking but with experience, with the knowledge of the qualitative aspects of a problem, with systemic thinking and beyond that the guts to explore something that had been unexplored so far and to execute the findings with confidence.
Having said this will like reiterate that mathematical thinking also has end no. of advantages but will like to describe this in details in some other blog.