What is marketing?

Author: Ian Exall A I M Limited, CIMCIG committee

Last month the CIMCIG blog featured a republication of a very thought-provoking article from Mike Rigby, CEO of MRA Marketing. Mike originally wrote in the March edition of Builders Merchants News, and argued that “marketing” has lost touch with three of the four P’s of the marketing mix. Mike’s key observation is that the marketing department has become pre-occupied with the P of Promotion and that the other elements of the marketing mix are being neglected, certainly by the marketing function, possibly by the business as a whole.

Now this may not be true of all businesses, but it is a very interesting observation and one which I fully agree with, in the context of the construction industry. But it also begs the questions of “what is marketing? And who should do it? – in the construction industry.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as “… the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably”. Looks like a fundamental part of what every business needs to do to me. And something that most companies are doing every day.

The CIM goes further and provides a framework within which a business can look at the marketing process in a simple and effective manner. It’s what the textbooks call the marketing mix. In the old days this was, as Mike refers to, the 4 P’s of marketing:

1. Product – The activities (strategies and tactics) deployed to ensure that the businesses product or service is relevant to the customer’s needs.
2. Price – Its at the right price for both the customer and the business.
3. Place – the route to market, where the customer is able to buy the product or service. For example, sales through merchants, online or direct to installer?
4. Promotion – How the business tells the world about the product or service. This is the bit of the mix that Mike observes is the pre-occupation of the modern marketing department. In the textbooks, this P encompasses the selling process. Indeed, in other industries the sales team is subservient to the marketing department for this reason. Something to explore in the next article.

Today, according to the Chartered Institute of Marketing (The CIM), the marketing mix has three other P’s for the business to think about:

5. People – We often say that the construction industry is a people business and the marketing mix fully recognises this. How our staff behave and serve our customers is as important as the product or service that we provide. A fundamental aspect to the brand in many respects.
6. Process – How the customer engages with your business. In a past life, I often heard customers say that the company’s product was great but the business was hard to deal with.
7. Physical evidence – Traditionally a tool of the P of Promotion, this is a modern development where customers faced with a huge choice of product or service need re-assurance that it works. Case studies, product demonstrations, product or installation videos etc all help to reduce the customers uncertainty.

Each of the elements of the marketing mix are fundamental and most are intrinsically linked to each other. It’s important to remember, all are key to the way that the business performs and how successful it becomes.

The CIM has a very useful and easy to read guide to the 7P’s in “A brief summary of marketing and how it works.” 

As an aside, not everyone is bought into the marketing mix being stretched to 7P’s from the original 4. Mark Ritson, the columnist at Marketing week, rather fluidly argues that the need to reinvent the 4P’s is not necessary. He goes further and reminds us that the 4P’s, although the key action elements of a marketing plan, are still just tactical decisions and that “marketing” starts (and is managed) by processes of research, review, analysis and strategic decision making. The marketing mix is the action plan that sets out how the strategies are to be deployed. More on this in later CIMCIG blogs.

Making sure that your plans, strategies and tactics are the right ones require a lot of research. By definition its market research but it doesn’t have to be a formal research programme. Within regular account review meetings, conversations with customers about their plans, issues affecting their business, identifying their needs and wants is the best place to start. Feedback from the sales, technical and customer service teams all helps to monitor and track trends. Tracking industry issues and trends through trade media and market data such as reports from the BMF / BMBI, the CPA etc are all very much part of that mix.

So this is marketing!

By taking a step back and looking at how the business operates, it is often quite easy to see that many of the strategic issues are actually being addressed by the management team but not necessarily within a joined up marketing plan or even by the marketing department – back to Mike Rigby’s article. The important thing is that the business has clear views as to its strategic approach to the marketing mix – and it’s imperative someone takes charge of them!

In the next blog we will look at who does the “marketing” and whether this is right or wrong for a business operating in the construction industry.

Mike Rigby’s “Whatever happened to marketing?” blog first appeared in the March Edition of Builders Merchants News, and can also be found on the CIMCIG site.

Mark Ritson’s article, “Attempts to update the four Ps are embarrassing – they’ve endured for a reason” featured in Marketing Week in March 2021.

Ian Exall is a CIMCIG Committee member and Commercial Director of insulation converter A I M Limited, part of the Performance Technology Group of companies.