Inspirational Power ( Part 1 )

The Fundamentals of Strategic Marketing, Some Key Traits for Greater Effectiveness

Probably, the greatest challenge to marketing management in the next five Years will be to change quick and fast enough, in order to keep pace with new technologies, new markets and new corporate values According to the definition of the AMA, "Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. "

Customer focus has nowadays become a cliché among marketers keen to win competitive advantage. But this issue deserves to be taken very seriously, as it disguises a shift from brand recognition to customer recognition. . Every business competing for a leadership role in the market they are operating is customer driven, customer focused, customer related, so what is new?

A new form of interacting with our customers, what I call an, "Intelligent Communication ", should be the strategy to follow; It helps if a marketer has a sales background paired with good oral and written communication skills, but a dialogue consists in a interaction between 2 persons, in a typical business scenario between buyer and seller, and to have a dialogue one should also develop the ability to proper listen to people.

This ability, is, in my opinion, the key skill for success. We marketers generally like to hear ourselves, but how can we develop a deep knowledge of our customer needs if we do not take proper time, focus and energy on really actively listen to what they have to say. By doing this, You will become a better listeners and a more critical and creative thinker.

These are the basic elements of what I consider to be an intelligent dialog with customers

Marketers daily face an endless exchange of ideas, messages, and information by dealing with their internal and external network day after day. How well they communicate can help determine whether their companies quickly grow into an industry leader or joins thousands of other businesses stranded in mediocrity.

Marketers, should, therefore, develop a deep understanding about what their customers wants and needs are, about meeting their expectations and key requirements, and ultimately, this focus should be the source of all the inspiration.

It is becoming more and more important to demonstrate your understanding of customers and Your ability to build trust and loyalty with them, and Marketing should be the driving force in every company and be seen as the link to those customers. (Both internally and externally!) Make sure that you have THE right story to tell to Your customers, as we are entering the "Age of the storyteller " where the biggest challenge facing companies is how to tell, communicate their story in the most compelling, consistent and credible way possible.

Business is comparable to art, it should be seen as a stage, where every sell is a performance and where the customers will meet new selling experiences, will feel motivated and engage to interact with the seller and the desirable result of such an interaction should always be a win-win situation.

Basically companies are what they charge for, by competing solely on a price basis those same companies have been commoditized providing their customers the perception of little or no differentiation to the competition, and adding little value to their offers, be it a product a system or a service.

The challenge for a modern business organisation should be to move to a situation where the customer starts buying from you rather than being sold to . . .

Business as usual is no longer a recipe for success.

Business relationship should be practiced as an act of friendship, rather than merely been seen as a simple process of negotiation. It is about connecting sincerely with people in, a profitable way, but caring for there needs, wishes, and not merely persuading or manipulating them to buy. If we want to practice value based marketing, than we should realize that the value of product ranges and brands no longer lies just in their capacity to deliver better margins, but in their ability to develop business relationships which deliver the vital assets and resources that make the difference between perishing and prospering.

Therefore, and in order to stay current and close with our customers we should focus on the R of CRM and create a new form of selling "relationship".

Henrique Plöger Abreu has a Master Degree in Business Administration, more than 20 Years of working experience in Sales and Marketing. He is a Public Speaker, Business Consultant and President of the L.T.C. a non Profit Organization.

In The News:

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Palestinians survey a kindergarten destroyed after an Israeli air strike in Gaza January 8, 2009. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)AP - Israel's government says it will press ahead with its military offensive in the Gaza Strip despite a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire.



Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock) votes to recommend the impeachment of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to the House during an Illinois House Impeachment Committee hearing Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009, in Springfield, Ill. The committee voted unanimously to recommend impeachment putting the matter before the full house.  (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)AP - Gov. Rod Blagojevich faces almost certain impeachment by the Illinois House, a historic step that would trigger a trial to determine whether the Democratic governor should be tossed out of office.



President-elect Barack Obama speaks about the economy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.,  Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)AP - Lawmakers are under orders to finish action on President-elect Barack Obama's nearly $800 billion economic recovery plan by mid-February. But already it is plain that a set of serious fissures need to be bridged if the bill is to be completed within five weeks.



Pay Equity pioneer Lily Ledbetter addresses the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008 file photo. Democrats are ushering in what they believe will be a new labor-friendly era in Washington with House votes on two bills aimed at helping women fight pay discrimination in the workplace. The House was to vote on the bills Friday Jan. 9, 2009, and they could reach Barack Obama's desk soon after he enters the White House.  One of the bills, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, is a response to a 2007 Supreme Court decision that made it more difficult to sue over past pay discrimination.  (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, FILE)AP - Democrats are ushering in what they believe will be a new labor-friendly era in Washington with House votes on two bills aimed at helping women fight pay discrimination in the workplace.



A sign instructs job seekers at the California Employment Development Department in Sunnyvale, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. The country lost nearly 2 million jobs through November and more bad news is expected this week when the government releases data on weekly jobless claims and December unemployment. No matter how bad those numbers are, and economists expect at least another 500,000 jobs were lost last month, the pain is stretching into 2009.  (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)AP - Trying to survive a deepening recession, employers are cutting their work forces to the bone, leaving more Americans unemployed and with dim prospects of finding a new job any time soon.



In this Monday, Dec. 29, 2008 file image provided by Greenpeace, coal ash slurry left behind in a containment pond near the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant is shown  in Harriman, Tenn., after the dyke at left broke Dec. 22, 2008. Millions of tons of toxic coal ash is piling up in power plant ponds in 32 states, a practice the federal government has long recognized as a risk to human health and the environment but has left unregulated. (AP Photo/Greeenpeace, Wade Payne)AP - Millions of tons of toxic coal ash is piling up in power plant ponds in 32 states, a practice the federal government has long recognized as a risk to human health and the environment but has left unregulated.



In this Dec. 5, 2006 file photo, Leon Panetta, then a member of the Iraq Study Group, walks into a Washington hotel.    (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)AP - President-elect Barack Obama is completing his national security team by announcing his unusual choices for CIA director and a national intelligence director who may face tough Senate confirmation questioning over how he confronted the Indonesian military when civilian massacres were occurring in East Timor.



In this Dec. 1, 2008 file photo, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, second left, speaks as Vice President-elect Joe Biden, left, President-elect Barack Obama; and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton, far right, listen at a news conference in Chicago.  (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)AP - Just minutes after George W. Bush took the oath of office eight years ago, he signed papers formally nominating 13 Cabinet-level officials. Several hours later, the Senate, meeting in a special Saturday session, confirmed seven Cabinet secretaries, including the heads of the key posts at State, Treasury and Defense.



Florida's Tim Tebow celebrates during the fourth quarter of the BCS Championship NCAA college football game against Oklahoma in Miami, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009. Florida defeated Oklahoma 24-14. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)AP - Tim Tebow enjoyed the battering-ram runs. He liked the old-school jump pass. Drawing a rare penalty, that really made Tebow's day. With No. 1 Florida about to finish off No. 2 Oklahoma 24-14 for the BCS championship Thursday night, Tebow was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct.



Freida Pinto backstage with the best picture award for 'Slumdog Millionaire' at the 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards on Thursday Jan. 8, 2009 in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)AP - The critics have spoken, and "Slumdog Millionaire" is their final answer.



Jaclyn Holt (R) fills out an application form at a job fair organized by the New Hampshire Employment Security agency in Salem, New Hampshire December 17, 2008. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)Reuters - Steep falls in European industrial output underlined the severity of the world economic crisis on Friday and more grim news was on the way with the United States expected to report the biggest monthly job cuts in more than 30 years.



An Israeli soldier stands atop a vehicle after crossing into Israel from the northern Gaza Strip January 7, 2009. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)Reuters - Israel pushed ahead with its two-week-old offensive in the Gaza Strip on Friday, defying a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.



Reuters - A report being released on Friday alleges that the U.S. Treasury has failed to reveal its strategy for stabilizing the financial system, not answered questions asked by a government watchdog, and has done nothing to help struggling homeowners, the Wall Street Journal said.

A pressure gauge is seen at a Ukrainian gas compressor station in the village of Boyarka near Kiev January 9, 2009 (Konstantin Chernichkin - UKRAINE/Reuters)Reuters - Europe sought a swift restoration of gas supplies on Friday after striking a deal with Moscow on monitoring gas shipments via Ukraine that have been halted by a pricing dispute with Kiev.



People taking the Long Island Foreclosure Tour arrive at a foreclosed home for sale in New Hyde Park, New York in this May 17, 2008 file photo. Citigroup could soon agree to principles that would let troubled borrowers save their homes through bankruptcy, sources familiar with the talks said on Thursday, while industry groups are easing their opposition to the plan. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)Reuters - Financial giant Citigroup Inc will support a proposal in Congress to rewrite U.S. bankruptcy law to help troubled mortgage borrowers avoid foreclosure, Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said on Thursday.



Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich gestures as he announces former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris as his choice to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama during a news conference in Chicago, Illinois December 30, 2008. (Frank Polich/Reuters)Reuters - A legislative committee on Thursday recommended the impeachment of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, citing widespread abuse of power including allegations he tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.



Timothy Geithner (R), pictured in Chicago, November 24, 2008. (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama's economic team is urgently overhauling the $700 billion financial rescue package to broaden its scope beyond Wall Street, The Washington Post reported on Friday.



A doctor checks the blood pressure of a patient at the J.W.C.H. safety-net clinic in the center of skid row in downtown Los Angeles July 30, 2007. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)Reuters - An analysis of proposals to overhaul U.S. health care by President-elect Barack Obama and members of Congress suggests it is possible to insure all Americans without significantly raising total health spending.



US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks to an unidentified aide during a Security Council meeting at the United Nations. Israel and Hamas have launched heavy air strikes and rocket attacks on each other, ignoring a UN Security Council order on the warring rivals to end their conflict.(AFP/File/Timothy A. Clary)AFP - Israel and Hamas launched heavy air strikes and rocket attacks on each other Friday, ignoring a UN Security Council order on the warring rivals to end their conflict.



A man carries firewood in the suburbs of Sofia, Bulgaria. The European Union demanded that Russian gas supplies to Europe resume immediately now that details of a mission to monitor the flow through Ukrainian pipelines have been agreed.(AFP/Dimitar Dilkoff)AFP - The European Union demanded Friday that Russian gas supplies to Europe resume immediately now that details of a mission to monitor the flow through Ukrainian pipelines have been agreed.




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