Selling focuses on the needs of the seller. The seller’s objective is to get the product into the hands of the buyer in exchange for as much cash as possible as quickly as possible.
It’s a ‘push’ activity with the physical product and price top of mind, carried out with little consideration for the buyer’s longer-term needs.
Marketing focuses on the consumer. It’s about meeting their needs with a product that leaves a high level of satisfaction and desire to return for more. It’s a ‘pull’ activity aimed at bringing the buyer back again and again.
This in no way disparages the skill of the salesperson. I speak from experience, having been a door-to-door salesperson of Encyclopaedia Britannica while studying many years ago.
Our training was aimed at getting through the door, building the sales pitch, and closing the sale. Some excelled at it and made good money. Others, like me, didn’t last too long!
A marketer is a deep thinker. He or she aims to meet the needs of the consumer and members of the value chain, moving the product from the producer to the consumer along the route of transporter, wholesaler and retailer.
A marketer understands that the ‘product’ is much more than the physical item and seeks to develop it in the fullest sense of the word, including not only a high-quality item, but secure and creative packaging, promotion harmonised with the product characteristics and projected image, efficient distribution, and availability for sale from the right place at the right price.
The marketer aims to get into the mind of the consumer, not just into the door.
The starting point for any marketing strategy is market segmentation. This entails selecting the target market or markets and pinpointing their specific needs and characteristics.
Markets can be segmented in myriad ways: by geographical area, gender, cultural group, income level, age, lifestyle, level of education, household size, residential location, amenities owned, sports played, and many others.
Divide the market into segments
Take Vodacom, for example. It has divided its market into five segments: youth, mass, high-value, family, and special needs. The company has developed tailor-made products and supporting promotional programmes for each of these.
In the clothing industry, Edgars, Jet, Woolworths, Truworths and Miladys all sell clothes, but each focuses on a different market segment, attempting to satisfy a different set of needs.
Jonsson Workwear and Totalsports are further examples of clothing retailers that target specific segments.
This practice is not limited to mass consumer markets. Builders and Mica Hardware stores, for example, both sell tools and other equipment but target very different markets.
In our town there is a CTM and an Italtile next door to one another. They’re owned by the same family, and both sell tiles, but their target markets are very different.
CTM targets the common mass market with low- and medium-cost tiles, while Italtile targets the higher-end market with expensive, imported tiles.
Extract maximum value
Yes, but it’s not relevant to me, I hear you say. I can’t tailor-make products for different segments of the market!
I’ll grant you, the small- or medium-scale producer of a basic commodity such as maize or sugar has little option but to deliver the crop to the local depot or mill, with limited opportunity to influence the market segment selected.
However, if you are producing a product with any special characteristics, you need to select a channel that extracts maximum value for you. You can only do this if you have identified and supply the market segment that provides the highest return.
So yes, market segmentation is relevant. If you produce a product that has unique characteristics, such as a special variety of fruit, you need to ensure that the agent or channel you select for marketing these products is targeting the segment that will yield the highest returns.
Larger producers are able to devise marketing strategies targeting specific markets. ZZ2 with tomatoes, Rugani with carrots, and Westfalia with avocados are examples.
In such cases, clearly established market segmentation is highly relevant and essential to the future success of these farming enterprises.
Acquaint yourself with terminology such as ‘marketing mix’, ‘product differentiation’, ‘product life cycle’, ‘below the line’ and ‘above the line’, and become a true marketer.
Peter Hughes is a business and management consultant.
