The document discusses the definition and importance of marketing. It begins with an analogy about learning to catch trout by thinking from the trout's perspective rather than one's own. This analogy illustrates that successful marketing requires understanding customers rather than just focusing on sales. The document then defines marketing as identifying and fulfilling customer needs profitably over time. It argues that every business is essentially a marketing operation that needs ongoing nurturing. Finally, it presents marketing's core questions around defining the business, products, customers and value proposition. The overall message is that marketing success depends on adopting a customer-centric mindset and perspective.
21. You Won’t Catch Trout if the Plug for the Jug is in the Bathroom!
22. So there I was. A firm grip on a beautifully crafted piece of matt black graphite with equally well crafted cork grip on the butt end (that’s the end you hold). Attached to this expensive piece of space ace technology was a finely engineered (also matt black) fly reel. Around this reel was wound a masterpiece of fly line design & construction – designed to provide everything I could want of a fly line (and more). Attached to the fly line, with the most practised blood knot in the history of novice knot tying, was a tippet so fine it was almost invisible to the naked eye.
23. And on the end of this tapering series of lines was the wonderful imitation of a dragonfly one could ever wish to set eyes upon. An imitation carefully (nee, painstakingly) selected from a costly fly box brimming with equally wondrous imitations of dry flies, wet flies, nymphs & streamers. It had been chosen, of course, for its aesthetic appeal and its visual contribution to the overall picture. I held this masterpiece of design, construction, aesthetics & performance whilst resplendent in my neoprene , stocking feet chest waders plus custom designed, felt soled wading boots.
24. Atop the chest part of these waders was the fly fishing vest, cut high to avoid unnecessary dousing in the river and stuffed full, in its 27 pockets, with every possible implement, tool and piece of equipment that any fly fisherman could ever need. Thousands of dollars worth of fly fishing magnificence, waist deep in fast running, freezing cold, Buller River, not a hundred paces from the ultimate accoutrement – the forest green, leather upholstered, 4 wheel drive (its main contribution being to rack up the overall asset value of this new found sport to a figure I am embarrassed to mention).
25. I had done the casting course. I had the kit. I had travelled to the river. And here I was, a picture of moody, outdoors magnificence – Southern Man in waders. I didn’t catch a trout that day. I didn’t catch a trout the next day. In fact, I didn’t catch a single bloody trout all season. But damnit! I looked bloody fantastic!!
26. And then I decided it was time to seek advice. Have a bit of a yarn with someone with scales under their fingernails, ice cold fresh water running through their veins and perspiring with the aromatic delights of dozens of trophy trout caught over the years, carefully slipped into the canvass bag, heading for the kitchen. “Your problem” he wisely offered “is easy and widespread. You’re approaching the business of fly fishing from your perspective. You’ll never catch fish until you learn to approach it from the trout’s perspective”.
27. And there it was. In a flash. A few simple yet powerfully truthful words of wisdom that had been so elusive and yet, when they came, so crystal clear. So obvious. And therein lies the problem. And the opportunity. For businesses everywhere. Wanna catch customers? Then think about your entire business from the customer’s perspective. Not from your perspective. And there you have it. No MBA needed.
28. And when this simple reality is understood and is present in a business it sticks out like dogs tails(!). There is no disguising it. Customers know it. Staff know it. Competitors know it. There is a connection between business and customer that just can’t be disguised. And the result is better business with better customers who enter into relationships, not just transactions, over longer periods of time. So given that, I’m not at all sure why so many businesses don’t look like, feel like, smell like they know this simple reality.
29. And I sure as heck don’t understand why so many businesses in this early part of the 21st Century still seem to regard business as some giant game of chess where, at best, customers are the pawns. They are treated, often, with contempt. They are treated, often, as transactional necessities rather than the lifeblood of any business, large or small, whatever the sector, wheresoever in the world they may be. And yes, strategy is important here. But Strategy is also the God of small things.
30. I recently stayed in a luxury hotel in Christchurch where, once checked-in, I went to the armoire (cupboard!) in my bedroom to make a cup of coffee. And there I encountered a tiny tent card. It said this. “Dear Guest. The plug for the jug is in the bathroom”. As I headed for the bathroom with the jug, I mentally considered the other things that were in the bathroom and stopped when I got to putting the dunny on the list. Now, I don’t know about you but I have this thing about mixing dunnies with matters of food & beverage. Ended up calling Room Service for my coffee.
31. The Hotel risked not hooking me as a return guest. They failed to look at their entire business from my perspective – the bloke with the money. Because the plug for the jug was in the bathroom. (And so was the dunny) Bears thinking about, don’t you think?
33. Marketing is…. “An organisation will only achieve its goals by identifying and/or creating needs/wants amongst its chosen target markets and fulfilling them, at a profit, time after time after time”
