Flowers need to attract bees for pollination. Bees come for nectar. But how do flowers tell the bees that it has good nectar? They market themselves through large petals. The primary role of petals is to attract bees and insects via their flamboyant color and pleasant fragrance.
Interesting to see Mother Nature doing marketing!
But sometimes, marketing is seen as evil and unnecessary in the startup world. There is a school of perception that just creating an awesome product, with product market fit, is enough for a start-up to succeed.
Both online and offline literature sprawls with such quotes:
Literature also often states that numerous companies like Google, PayPal, Zara, Apple, WhatsApp, Rolls Royce, Dropbox, etc. became leaders without marketing.
Even if we read literature authored by gigantic entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Brin/Page, we tend to get the same perception of great product triumph without the need for marketing.
In this article we shall try to delve into the practical reality of the fact. Let’s start with some companies which are often claimed to be successful just by great products and no marketing.
Google search engine was indeed kick-ass and is believed to have spread organically. But it is seldom highlighted that it had made a deal with Netscape to be the exclusive search engine for their internet browser. Netscape, the biggest internet browser company of its time, grew fast bringing users to Google.
This key association (or business development) was a vital marketing strategy for Google.
On similar lines, even today, Google is in deal with Apple to be the default search engine on its devices. Google allegedly pays Apple a whopping $12-$15 billion, annually, for it to remain the no.1 search engine, despite having a great product.
Zara
Zara, the clothing giant, is so successful a company that it made its founder among the richest five people on this planet at one point of time. It grew organically, without any marketing, as it offered an awesome clothing line-up at affordable prices.
But in my opinion, they do a lot of marketing!
They open their retail shops at the most prime locations. These high-footfall locations drive customers to the shops. The large amount of money which they spent for these locations is ideologically a marketing cost.
If they open the retail shops, with the same product, at a low cost location with little footfall, they will have to advertise or market in more obvious ways to inform and attract customers.
This is an old time marketing strategy of retail shop businesses (including restaurants). Apple takes this to the next level by further designing the stores so aesthetically that no one passing by can resist getting in. These designer shops also earn a lot of PR for Apple. Marketing strategy!
Tesla
Tesla has zero marketing budget. But Tesla gets tons of free PR due to its super celebrity founder, even on a small announcement. Otherwise, the same amount of PR would cost a lot. Having such a founder to whom the market is dying to hear is the marketing strategy of Tesla (even if unintentionally).
WhatsApp literally grew very fast without any marketing. They had an awesome product which provided free mobile chat between two people when customers had to pay for each SMS.
Imagine, on paper, if you just convince a pair of lovers in a college to use WhatsApp, it may be enough to explode the market. These two may convince their other friends to use WhatsApp to save their own money. Convincing will be easy as friends also save money. The chain may keep growing from here. Here the word-of-mouth exploded due to the Network Effect.
Network effects favored even companies like Facebook, Zoom. But one needs to realize that there are very few businesses which can ride on strong Network effects. Other successful companies like Amazon, Google, Uber, Apple, etc. could not grow the same way.
Advertising vs Marketing
Advertising is just one of the many marketing approaches (refer image). Other marketing approaches include activities mentioned in the image or any other strategy deployed to aware or convince the customer to buy the product.
But, in normal communications, often the words, marketing and advertising, are used interchangeably. Due to this, when a company is not advertising, one may loosely get a perception that it is not marketing. In many above examples, that seems to be the case.
Most B2B companies, new-age or traditional, like Salesforce, Zoho, Adobe, Tata Steel, Birla Cement, etc. have been using modes of marketing other than traditional advertising, ever since. Even B2C companies are using more and more of other modes in combination with targeted online advertising. Thinking that they are not marketing as they are not advertising much is misguiding.
At the same time, in later phases of growth, many new-age B2C companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Paytm, Big Basket did use traditional advertising (including TV ads) for massive and fast growth in the same manner as FMCG companies do.
A lot of companies do grow without advertising but very few grow without marketing.
Even God needs Marketing
Buddhism, considered to be a very fine religion by most scholars, was confined only to northern India till king Ashoka started spreading it. Owing to his marketing efforts in Asia, Buddhism has been popular in most parts of Asia. The same religion has never been prominent in Europe as no one spread it there.
What about politics? Even the great Abraham Lincoln had to campaign aggressively for becoming President.
Marketing Basics
On a very crude level, the typical flow of selling a product is as in image.
Note, it is true that if a product is not good, customers may finally drop after step 5 and the company may die eventually. But also note that till the customer buys the product first time (in step 4), he actually is being influenced only by sales and marketing. He tastes the quality only after buying.
So, when a company is in its initial stage of expansion, it needs to market itself. But once it has captured the market, the product may speak for itself and marketing can be reduced/removed.
Good Products DESERVE Marketing
On traveling Europe extensively, one can easily find out that there are many cities (Zagreb, Warsaw, Verona etc.) which are less visited than Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Athens, etc. despite being equally or even more beautiful. Marketing!
Computer mouse was made by Xerox. But Xerox did not market it. Had Apple and Microsoft not marketed the mouse, it would have not reached the customers. Also, the companies which ripped the benefit of the product were not its creator but its marketers.
Sosyo and Chambal are cola based cold drinks popular in some pockets of Gujarat and Rajasthan. As a user, I found the taste good. But why don’t they sell the same as Coke and Pepsi even in those regions?
There are tons of awesome products which never get their due because they are not marketed well.
Literature from gigantic entrepreneurs like Gates, Jobs, etc.?
Say you want to go for vacation to Rome (or maybe to Verona, now!). So, you have to meet Rome but you must choose a mode of transport. Mode of transport is unavoidable. Similarly, when a product has to meet consumers, the marketing and sales activities are modes of transport, mostly unavoidable. (refer image)
Now, after the trip, if a passionate traveler has to talk about his experience, what will he say? The majority of his talk will be on how great Rome was, very little or no talk on the mode of transport. He was passionate about Rome, not the mode of transport, right?
Similarly and for the same reason, when passionate entrepreneurs open up, most of the time they will talk and write about the product, how great it was, how it delighted the customers and so on. This gives the perception to listeners that product alone was important.
Conclusion
A traveler can think of the transport as a necessary evil or as a beautiful thing which connects him to the destination. However, both, a wise traveler and a wise entrepreneur, try to minimize the cost and time of this mode of transport.
Entrepreneurs must create awesome products but they also need to start thinking of marketing as they start creating the product. Many times, marketing can even be embedded in the product design.
