A Study of Marketing Basics Using King Solomon’s Principles

With a little study we can see that there are several concepts and misconceptions about marketing that need to be addressed before we get into the meat of this article. The basic concept of marketing is ‘the diversity of activities used in assuring that we are meeting the needs of our clients and that we are getting a valuable return in response.’ A major misconception of marketing is that it only entails ‘advertising your product or service.’ Advertising is important, however, it is only one component in the process of marketing.

We can define the core meaning of marketing as ‘understanding’ your clients’ needs and ‘developing’ a plan that effectively addresses those needs. By understanding marketing in this way, a business owner who desires to see his business ‘grow’ can set the proper goals.

The most effective way to grow or expand a business is to focus on ‘organic growth.’ In order to understand ‘organic growth’, we need to realize that a business is a living organism. We can either let it fend for itself or we can determine what it needs to help it grow. By determining what the business needs we can thus determine what we need to do to make it thrive.

Let’s look at two basic elements of marketing to help us get a better idea of the activities that we need to do to create a successful business. The first element of marketing that we need to consider is ‘developing a marketing plan.’ The second element is your ‘ongoing promotion.’ A serious mistake that many business owners make is to create a product or service and immediately begin an advertising campaign. After a further explanation of these two basic elements, you’ll understand why this mistake can be a disappointing and costly one.

Developing a ‘marketing plan’ or ‘marketing strategy’ is essential to the well being of a business. The first step in creating a marketing plan is to do a little research and analysis. Don’t slap yourself on the forehead in exasperation. This is not as difficult as the name implies. It may take a little time but is well worth every minute.

Let’s begin by looking at a simplified explanation of ‘marketing analysis.’ We can apply two of Solomon’s Keys to Success at this point.

Proverbs 1:5 (Amplified Bible) “The wise also will hear and increase in learning, and the person of understanding will acquire skill and attain to sound counsel [so that he may be able to steer his course rightly]” Wise counsel can be found in many forms. We should also remember, for those of us who think we understand better than others, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who listens to counsel is wise.” Proverbs 12:15 (Amplified Bible)

A well planned market analysis contains the following:

1.) Determining our ‘market’ or the groups of potential clients that exist,

2.) Decide which of these groups of customers fit our marketing preference (target markets),

3.) Determining the needs of our target market,

4.) Developing the best products or services that might meet the needs of our target market,

5.) Determining how our potential customers might use our products and services,

6.) Understanding what our competitors are doing,

7.) Determining the pricing structure that we should use and

8.) Decide on a plan for the distribution products and services to your target markets.

There are numerous methods of ‘market research’ that can be used to gather information concerning markets, target markets and customer needs, competitors’ products, etc. The ease of Internet research will reveal many sources of specific information. We must target our searches on the Internet search engines. This can be accomplished by beginning from a broad area of possibilities and with each subsequent search get more specific until we have discovered as much as possible about our market in general and specifically our target market. The resulting information will determine our ‘niche’ market, our specific area of a market that is best for our product or service.

After having developed our marketing plan, we should look at our plan for ‘ongoing promotions.’ Our plan for ongoing promotion will include advertising, public relations, sales and customer service to name a few. These terms (advertising, marketing, promotion, public relations and publicity, and sales) can easily become confusing. These are terms that are often used interchangeably. However, they refer to different but similar activities.

Let’s look at a list of quick definition of each term.

1.) Advertising — presenting a product (or service) to potential and current clients. Advertising needs to be focused on a particular product or service. We must understand that an advertising plan for one product will be different from that for another product. Advertising is usually done with signs, brochures, commercials, direct mailings or e-mail messages, personal contact, website banners, etc.

2.) Promotion — Promotion can be defined as the tasks that maintain the product in the minds of the customer (product recognition). The ongoing effort of advertising, sales and public relations are often considered aspects of promotions.

3.) Public Relations — ongoing activities to ensure the company has a strong and positive public image. This is often referred to as “PR.”

4.) Publicity — being mentioned in the media. This is always the review of someone else but can include news releases.

These are a few of the many terms that need to be learned. The health and well being of our business, your business, is determined by the extent of diligent study that you do and the application of the principles that you learn through study. To best know your product or service or clients or competitors, you must develop a sincere determination to become as diligent as possible.

Remember these principles in Solomon’s Proverbs to help you develop a growing and successful business.

Proverbs 10:4 (NLT) “Lazy people are soon poor; hard workers get rich.”

Proverbs 12:24 (The Amplified Bible) “The hand of the diligent will rule, but the slothful will be put to forced labor.”

Proverbs 13:4 (NASB) “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the soul of the diligent is made fat.”

Proverbs 21:5 (NASB) “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.”

Memorize this last Proverb. It will help you to focus on the tasks at hand.

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