Guest Blogger Rita Tavares shares her thought's on Marketing, Ethics and Kindness in the Business World

Rita Tavares of Tristar Balloons Florida.

What comes to be Marketing, Ethics and Kindness in the Business world?

People mistake Marketing for just a nice commercial, a sale of a product or service, or even a nice presentation. Marketing is all of the above, but it is also product research, product development, market research, branding, and customer support, among other things, all in one package.

Many professionals uses Marketing the wrong way, making the imaging of the product something totally different from what it actually is.

According to Professor Raimar Richers, one of the defenders of true Marketing and an authority in the subject says that Marketing is something totally different from what we have been taught to believe.  Marketing is an English word derived from the Latin word “Mercátus”, which means commercialization. Bartels, another Marketing expert, the expression was first used in the early nineteen hundreds, through early publications on commercialization. One can say that true marketing is about meeting necessities and not creating them. Marketing should be an important tool for social balance.     

For the AMA (American Marketing Association) marketing is an organization function and processes that deals with the creation, communication and the delivery of value for the client, as well as the management of the customer relationship, that benefits the organization and the public. It’s not only that creative commercial on TV, or the beautiful illustration on a magazine. Marketing is 90% behind the scenes work and 10% exposure.     

It’s safe to assume that Marketing is the central point of business. Is how you will attract your customers and keep them. To accomplish that you will have to go beyond just an image and deeply understand your market and what your customers are looking for.

Some rules to be followed are: 

·      Always plan what you want to sell

·      Be ethical

·      Market research

·      Work on the product presentation

·      Understand your customer needs

·      Well throughout product lunching plan

·      Logistics, logistics, logistics

·      Product promotions

·      Advertising

·      Post-Sale support

·      Product improvement

·      Unified communication between suppliers, manufactures and client

Marketing complements what people want to buy and not what you have to sell or like to sell. In his book “Marketing”, Professor Raimar Richers states that Marketing is the ability to understand and meet your client’s needs. Marketing should not be used to salvage a poorly designed product. It’s important that you understand that success comes with hard work and that good fortune will elude you if you try to cut corners.       

One of the most challenging things in business is to stay ethical in any situation. Many times the business environment can be so competitive that we are tempted to do “whatever it takes” to gain the edge.

Ethics is a system of moral principles, the rules of conduct that guides each one of us to do the right thing regardless of the situation. To be Ethical is to always know the difference between right and wrong. To never abandon these principles is to be willing to pay the ultimate price.

The question is: How do we stay true to these principles and when you are pressure to deliver? A good way to stay true to what is right is by always expecting to be treated the same way that you treat a person and/or a situation. You hope to never be done wrong by someone or situation. The same way you should treat others and any situation as if you were on the other end.         

Tom Peters in one of his book said:

- Be honest in any situation - is the result of the business, a credit and always mention the author's work, it is ethical kindness = = Marketing.

- Always have the courage to take decisions or mistakes - even against the advice of others, be fair to others, even though for this you have to go over a brother, does not condone unfair people.

- Be tolerant and flexible - you have to know and then judge the people, or do not judge just by listening, it is always dangerous.

- Be healthy - to act according to his principles, even if its principles are not equal to his best friend.

- Be humble in every situation - just so we can recognize individual success.

Ethics and the Internet – The Internet has changed the way we communicate. The speed in which we communicate, get informed, paid and work has forced us to be more disciplined and more careful with our actions. Let’s not use these challenges to not do the right thing. Let’s make sure we influence people “one click at a time”.

And last but not least, Kindness (Marketing= Ethics=Kindness).

Kindness sometimes is seeing as weakness and not strength. The industry expects business aggressiveness and not mild disposition and goodness. The more “in your face” attitude you have, the more result oriented you are. What we don’t realize is that being kind means a healthier emotional person. The healthier you are the more productive and creative you are. Productivity and creativity will undoubtedly put you in a better position to be successful. To have positive attitudes when life presents you challenges is what will define you as a person and a professional. Companies are looking for people that can handle adversity with grace. They are better equipped to establish healthier and productive work environments. 

Available from Amazon and other book stores.

I read a book two months ago called “In Search of Excellence”, by Tom Peters. In the book he talks about how companies can improve their sales performance. The message was that if you want to your company to excel, hire people with positive attitude, team players, instead of people that are all about themselves. In the book he lists some of the things that you may want to look for when interviewing for a position.

- Positive attitudes - An employee who speaks against or denigrates the image of another worker, even if they are "mortal enemies", creates a negative work environment;

- Happy employees will create happy and satisfied customers, increase sales;

- Always try to do the right thing no matter what the situation is. If you hear something that is wrong, do not pass it on, forget it;

- Kindness can generate profits, both in the financial and emotional sense.

References:

-       O que e Marketing – Raimar Richers

-       American Marketing Association

-       The Little Big Things – Tom Peters

-       In Search of Excellence – Tom Peters

-       The New Rules of Marketing – David Meerman Scott

-       Be Excellent at Anything – Tony Schwartz

-       Walt Disney’s Way – New Word City