Setting the Stage: Frameworks

We’ve all seen it. Clinics who attempt to make critical business decisions and solve problems using a trial and error approach as a learning process. While this approach can have positives, overall it is a poor way to reach solutions because there is no consistency. A more systematic way to approach problem solving is by utilizing frameworks.

Frameworks act as a guide to problem solving. Instead of moving directly from a specific problem to a specific solution, as the trial and error approach suggests, a manager would look at the specific problem and be able to generalize it into a more abstract problem that can be addressed by a particular framework. Then, the manager would use the framework to determine generalized solutions, and finally, be able to translate that generalized solution to solve the specific problem.

My next post will discuss the key marketing principle of value creation and the process by which this value is created. We will be introduced to a framework for action planning and be well on our way to laying the foundation for marketing management.

So what exactly is marketing?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “So what is marketing? It’s just selling things, right?” In a word, no. Marketing is not just about selling things. If you are among this line of thinking, that’s ok. Hopefully by the end of this post, you will see that a true view of marketing as a business discipline is broad and encompasses so much more than sales activities.

The goal of marketing is to create a product or service that sells, not to sell a product or service. Products that sell are products that have value. Now we’re getting to the heart of marketing – it’s the art and science of creating value by designing and managing successful exchanges. Hm. Ok. Now we’re getting somewhere. I think that everyone can agree that creating a product or service that has value for a customer and receiving something in exchange for that product or service is a strategic concept that has positive implications for business. Now that we’ve laid this groundwork, the broad definition of marketing should make more sense. Marketing encompasses the activities, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, and society at large. 

OK, so we’ve defined marketing, and I’m going to guess that you’re feeling pretty positive about the concept of marketing as a business strategy component. But how should you go about approaching marketing in your small business? The answer is developing a marketing strategy. We will look at the specifics of developing a marketing strategy in future posts, but let’s take a quick look at the definition. Marketing strategy is the integrated pattern of decisions that specify crucial choices concerning products, markets, marketing activities, and marketing resources in the creation, communication, and delivery of products that offer value to the customer in exchange with the organization to achieve specific objectives.

I hope this overview of marketing and its accompanying strategy has helped to provide a framework for our future discussions. I’m looking forward to exploring the concepts that I’m learning in my marketing strategy course through this blog. I welcome your feedback, so don’t hesitate to throw questions my way.