The Manager's View

Creating value for customers, the company and its collaborators has been a centerpiece of my approach to building marketing strategies. In my mind, trying to create a strategy without creating value is akin to a fraud. Working with business customers is different from working with individual customers. Business customers usually have what we refer to as "rational buyers". The people spending money for a company are buying products that will make their business successful. There is a lot of attention to cost vs benefit of each purchase and those purchases should contribute to the success of their business. In other words, people making buying decisions are paid to make optimal purchase decision and their career depends on making the best purchase. In many cases there are several individuals involved in the purchase. There is the person or group that will use the product or service being purchased, there is the individual that must approve the purchase and there is the person w...

Things to Consider When developing a Plan for Creating Value  I have long talked about the need to create value for a company, its customers and collaborators and I have given supporting theories. but are there ways to turn those recommendations and theories into actions that can be taken. I think we can start with looking at how one of the great thinkers of our age, Abraham Maslow,  thought about society. He created a pyramid of needs that individuals have that must be met. The lower level of needs need to be met at some level before the next level on the pyramid can be reached. Those levels are: Physiological Needs  – basic survival (food, shelter, etc.) Safety Needs  – security, health, stability Belongingness and Love  – relationships, group identity Esteem Needs  – status, recognition, achievement Self-Actualization  – personal growth, creativity, fulfillment Understanding these levels of Maslow's hierarchy can get us started toward how we can cre...

Creating ads that will provide the results you are looking for requires you to determine the results you want. In this blog I will go through a process that would be used in the Execution stage of the MVOSSTE strategy framework. I will also be using AI to answer questions. The AI responses are highlighted. The first step in this process is determining what market you want to reach and that should depend on what jobs your product or service is doing for the customers. This is not always obvious and may require the martketer to take a step back and ask just exactly what jobs are being done and for whom.  For example, if you are in the grocery business, you might ask yourself, your colleagues or AI what jobs do grocery stores perform? Recognizing that your company must provide value for itself, its customers and its collaborators, you might come up with the following list of jobs. 1. Jobs for Customers Functional Jobs Obtain food and household necessities  conveniently and afford...