Marketing, as a domain of management, has matured over the last six to eight decades. In this article, we look at what is marketed by a firm. One of the essential questions to answer time and again is the scope of marketing. One of the critical criteria for this is to decide ‘what is marketed.’
What do customers want?
Whenever a customer purchases a product or service, they are looking to solve a problem. This solution provides some value to the customer. Therefore, customers want value.
However, the value is intangible. Therefore, we package value as a product or service. The task of a marketing manager is to deliver this value to the customer. Essentially, we can say that we market consumer value.
Why is it important to understand ‘the marketed’?
It is quite easy to get into the trap of thinking from the firm’s perspective. Although we talk about customer-centricity, we don’t understand the customer enough. If we did, then they wouldn’t be a market leader in any product category. There wouldn’t be a monopoly or duopoly of brands.
So, in other words, we can also say that what is marketed is essentially a solution to a customer’s problem. Now, we need to look at the different ways in which we can deliver these solutions.
What is Marketed?
There are around ten different things that are marketed. We shall look at them one by one, but it can become difficult to memorize all of them. Therefore, we have developed a mnemonic to help you remember it easily. The GIST is PEOPLE
| 1 | G | Goods |
| 2 | I | Information |
| 3 | S | Services |
| 4 | T | Thoughts |
| 5 | P | Place |
| 6 | E | Experience |
| 7 | O | Organizations |
| 8 | P | People |
| 9 | L | Location |
| 10 | E | Events |
‘GIST is PEOPLE‘ Mnemonic
GIST is the core of marketing. Therefore, we call it GIST. Goods and Services cover almost all forms of economic activity. Information as a commodity is the exchange of useful ideas between parties. Similarly, Thoughts are ideas that are propagated for personal, professional, or political gains.
These are some auxiliary concepts that are marketed. Marketing is an activity that benefits not just firms but also individuals and other organizations. We had talked about value. Here we see different ways in which people derive value.
Goods
Goods are the most visible type of economic activity. We can see many examples of products around us. All of these physical, tangible products are called goods.
The economy of countries like China and Vietnam is heavily dependent on the production and sale of goods. Marketing plays an essential role in this process. In the case of China, the major bulk of the goods made are not sold directly to the customers. You may ask, then how is marketing still relevant? It is because of the business to business(B2B) transactions. B2B marketing is also a prominent sub-domain of marketing.
Information
Although it is not as tangible as goods, information may hold immense value for the customers. Google, as a mega-corporation, started as an information provider. Similarly, a lot of publishing firms deliver value to customers through information. This information can be in the form of websites, videos, books, magazines, etc.
In the last decade or so, there has been increasing importance placed on the value of data. By itself, data may not be that useful, but when it becomes information, it does. Firms derive immense benefit from data. Companies that provide data also need to market their services as a provider of information. For instance, IBM’s Watson is a universal and centralized analytics platform.
Services
You can think of services as the opposite of goods. While goods are supposed to be tangible and physical, the services are intangible. For instance, A printer is good, but getting a page printed from your library is a service.
Services account for a significant proportion of the GDP for many countries. For instance, we have countries like Canada. Services account for up to 70% of the GDP in Canada. One should also keep in mind that marketing services are different from marketing goods. You can read more about the marketing mix for products in our article.
Thoughts
Sometimes we can summarize an entire business model as a thought or an idea. These ideas or thoughts may not be commercial. However, it’s quite useful to think of marketing in the way of thoughts that consumers have in mind.
The value proposition that we present to the customers should be aligned with their thoughts. The best form of marketing is where we can plant ideas into the consumers’ minds. We are not talking about something like ‘Inception.’ We are instead talking about a marketing campaign that impregnates a consumer’s mind. There is a famous case of De Beers. The diamond company that led people to believe that they need to spend two months of their salary for an engagement ring.
Properties
Properties are rights of ownership. Although most common forms of property are real estates, they can also be something intangible. For instance, we have intellectual property or IP.
Alternatively, properties can also be other forms of ownership. For instance, you can own a part of the company by buying its shares. This is an example of financial property. The companies that deal with this kind of property have to market it to the desired target customers.
Experience
Experiences are life moments that people enjoy. The entire entertainment industry is based on the concept of experience. Sometimes tourism can also be conceptualized as an experience.
Alternatively, some of the products and services can be converted into experiences. We can achieve this by customizing or personalizing the products or services. Traveling by train from a city to another is a service. However, traveling by train like ‘Palace on Wheels‘ is an experience.
Organizations
When we talk about organizations, we can categorize them as commercial or not-for-profit firms. We can use marketing for both these opposite types of firms. Organization marketing primarily focuses on creating a brand.
Sometimes these marketing efforts may seem trivial. We may also see them as repetitive. The purpose of these marketing campaigns is to create a story. Coca-Cola uses a simple slogan: “Open Happiness.” An entire story around their organization as a provider of fun times.
People
Sometimes people are the epicenter of consumer value. This means that certain high profile people have immense economic or political value. However, where there is value, there is competition.
These important people have to develop a brand around their personality. This brand, akin to the corporate brand, helps them gain attention and admiration from the masses. Generally, they hire independent marketing consultants or Public relations managers to handle how they are marketed.
Location
Locations are important venues for tourism or commercial activities. Hence, they require to be marketed. Some countries spend millions of dollars on promoting tourism. This comes under tourism marketing.
On the other hand, there is a lot of commercial importance for certain locations. How do these cities have competition? They face competition from alternative locations. When there is a choice to be made there are always options. The job of a marketer is to present a place as a brand
Events
An event can also provide value to the customer. Hence it is one among the list of the ten what is marketed things. Some of the typical events are sporting events, music concerts, conferences, and fairs.
Marketers advertise these events to spread awareness. Generally, these events are short. At times, they may be a one-time event or a recurring one. We have Football and Cricket world cups every four years. This helps in enhancing the importance of these events.
Conclusion – what is marketed?
It is interesting to note the subtle differences for each of these ten things. On one hand, we can market people who represent a small entity. On the other hand, we can market an entire country.
Additionally, we have examples of events that are short-lived. They may require great marketing in a few days or months. On the other hand, some marketing efforts, like building brands of politicians, may take several years.