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in a world without marketing
alliop
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Posted 05/25/08 - 07:24 AM:
Subject: in a world without marketing
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Lets us pretend for a moment that all marketing was banned and the only thing you could put on the side of a box to differentiate your product from another was its make, model, and name in plain text.

Would corperations then divert the money they spend on marketing away from marketing and more towards research and developement thus producing higher qaulity products at a faster pace?
keda
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Posted 05/25/08 - 09:33 AM:
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There would not be spent anything at all if the products could not be sold, which they would not if people did not have any knowledge about them.

All about making money
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PontificatingChauncy
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Posted 05/25/08 - 10:03 AM:
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Cereal would not be sold w/o little animals on the side of the box?

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RelativelyImportant
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Posted 05/25/08 - 11:59 AM:
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alliop wrote:
Lets us pretend for a moment that all marketing was banned and the only thing you could put on the side of a box to differentiate your product from another was its make, model, and name in plain text.

Would corperations then divert the money they spend on marketing away from marketing and more towards research and developement thus producing higher qaulity products at a faster pace?


What you describe would still be marketing, since marketing is the set of processes for creating, COMMUNICATING, and delivering value to customers and for managing relationships in ways to benefit an organization. (Kotler)

The nice little pictures, ads, design etc. is only one part. There is more to it, for example, sales are closely linked to marketing. Furthermore enable marketing a company to improve quality of products, reduces its costs....I could go on. So by saying this to you, the second part of your question is answered, they would not. They would not know where to start their research.
Nobody would invest money (as "keda" said)without knowing that a specific target market would react to it. And to attract it a specific marketing mix is needed.

Theoretically, I would like to live in a world without marketing, but even screaming at the market to sell your products is marketing. So forget about it :-) maybe in more ideal state forms....



"Wahrlich ihr kennt des Geistes Stolz nicht! Aber nochweniger würdet ihr des Geistes Bescheidenheit ertragen, wenn sie einmal reden wollte!" Nietzsche
SIR2U
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Posted 05/25/08 - 06:11 PM:
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alliop wrote:
Lets us pretend for a moment that all marketing was banned and the only thing you could put on the side of a box to differentiate your product from another was its make, model, and name in plain text.


When people first started trading, this is exactly what they did. And when people needed something they still bought it.

alliop wrote:
Would corperations then divert the money they spend on marketing away from marketing and more towards research and developement thus producing higher qaulity products at a faster pace?


Who knows with the profit hungry corporations what they would do. Logically they should be doing this anyway, because a better product usually sells better. But they should at least be able to reduce they costs of the products. My bet is that they would do neither.

Lots of companies keep there overheads down by producing lower quality items at a price that is affordable to the masses and doing very little marketing. Companies that have very little competition world wide tend to spend an awful lot on comercials.

The two world wide cola companies are said to spend more on advertising than a lot of governments spend on health and education. But when you go to the store, you buy the brand that you prefer based on it's taste not on the kind of bikini the girls in the comercial were wearing.

If I were the owner of a car company, the only marketing I would spend on would be the publishing of the governments testing results and the name plate of the car. How many times do you see ads in the newspapers for Rolls Royce.



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swstephe
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Posted 05/26/08 - 05:16 AM:
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It would have a big economic impact, since so much of the economy rests on an over-inflated market, (and its reliance on human psychology). First, companies would save a lot of marketing budget, which they could turn toward improving product quality -- but all those marketing staff would have to be re-assigned or let go. Magazines, newspapers, radio and much of television would cease to exist. Even so-called "public TV", would lose a lot without corporate sponsorship. What remained would have to be much more expensive or costs cut. Same goes for public transport and sporting events. Then there would be a collapse in price. I saw one statistic that said people are willing to pay several times more than a product is worth based on brand loyalty and selling-by-emotion. Demand would collapse a lot of products whose budget was based on branding. Without that revenue, prices would have to drop and you end up with an economic downturn.

Then you have the problem of gray areas. Does an apple sitting on a shelf constitute "marketing", (by nature)? Should apples, bananas and oranges come in similar "fruit boxes", just to prevent marketing bias? What about driving a certain car or wearing a certain kind of clothing? Should those products be forced to be generic? If there is a gray area, it will get exploited.

Ethics is the measuring of morality. Morality is the measuring of good. Good is the measuring of benefit. Benefit is the measure of values.
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Posted 05/26/08 - 07:36 AM:
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so you all see no link betwen marketing and quality improvement? damn, they are not teaching me well...

So, if there was no marketing, nike, puma, and reebok would have all the same quality shoe. Which one would you buy? they cannot differentiate their products anymore, so they do not know who is going to buy it, what their share is, because they cannot direct their sales to their target market by marketing. Hence, a company you would hesitate in investing big sums in their reasearch departments. They would probably try to distinguish themeselves even more by price to attract customers.

A limit to marketing expenses would, in my opinion, be the best. I think, we do not have to discuss the sense of blown-up marketing ads.

focusing on quality works very well in niche markets. but not in mass markets such as food and clothing.


"Wahrlich ihr kennt des Geistes Stolz nicht! Aber nochweniger würdet ihr des Geistes Bescheidenheit ertragen, wenn sie einmal reden wollte!" Nietzsche
cortes
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Posted 05/26/08 - 07:53 AM:
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alliop wrote:
Lets us pretend for a moment that all marketing was banned and the only thing you could put on the side of a box to differentiate your product from another was its make, model, and name in plain text. Would corperations then divert the money they spend on marketing away from marketing and more towards research and developement thus producing higher qaulity products at a faster pace?


You are confusing marketing and branding. Marketing is a broader subject than branding. Marketing includes all means that a company undertakes to inform customers of the existence of a product or service and its features as well as the arguments for purchasing the product or service. Marketing encompases all the activities of a company and the alternative would be, I guess, complete passivity and invisibility (even a sign on a store is marketing).

Branding is more specifically the emotional appeal that is associated with a product, service, or company apart from the product features itself. Branding is inherent to marketing, you can't market an undifferentiated product if you're purpose is to draw cusotomers to your product instead of your competitors. While extreme branding can appear entirely valueless (e.g. two companies selling the exact same product under different brands), some branding is inherently necessary.

But many consumer product marketing is almost entirely a branding appeal. This, I guess, is the core of your question. Perhaps what you are really asking is what would happen if marketing did not include emotional appeals?

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keda
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Posted 05/26/08 - 08:56 AM:
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Linguistic and conceptual meltdown are the final symptoms of a collapsing civilization.

All about making money
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In thought, men distance themselves from nature in order thus imaginatively to present it to themselves--but only in order to determine how it is to be dominated - Adorno and Horkheimer
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Posted 05/26/08 - 07:13 PM:
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But how would men and women ever pick each other up without marketing? You have to get the product to the consumer somehow.

Marketing has always been and always will be with us.

-Floyd

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