The Futurist: Going back to basics

 Strategy without tactic is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat,” wrote Sun Tzu in The Art of War.

While there are many marketing tools and methods available for marketers to pick and choose befittingly, the fundamental of marketing still remains unchanged: understanding your target market while being wary of your competitors’ moves.

This basic knowledge plays a vital role in creating products, determining product positioning and pricing, and inspiring our marketing plans. If we were to understand marketing in its simplest form, it is a trade that exists from solving customers’ problems by being focused and specific to fulfilling their needs and wants.

But the way we conduct our trade has changed. Sophisticated technology is taking over. Consumers now have more freedom and bigger purchasing power, and competition is getting tougher. Only those who pause, examine and refocus their direction ahead of their competitors can succeed.

Assessing competitors allows us to revisit, revalue and relearn our products’ in depth. We are also able to identify the positioning of our products in the marketplace, whether we are in front or way behind.

Over the past decade, due to the advancement in technology, we have seen rapid changes in how people communicate and view the world - especially after the invention of the smartphone. From marketers’ perspective, this is seen as a new shift in consumers’ behaviour, and thus, redefining the way we understand our target market. It is crucial to note the digital world is also the consumer’s world. It’s where they go to interact with friends, look for entertainment and information, and buy products.

Anyone who owns a smartphone or has access to the internet is a potential buyer. The world of consumerism today revolves around “living in the moment”. Marketers must always be in the loop of the latest market trends as it will help our products to stay relevant. The faster you grasp this concept, the easier you can improvise your products, lay out marketing strategies and prepare your marketing tools.

In the face of the current market landscape, which is fast-changing and always reforming, there is no space for those who fail to catch up. I would like to emphasise on “the moment” where time is our frenemy, speed is essential and awareness of the market is fundamental. This concept is the “basics” of the current consumers’ behaviour.

Our consumers value instant digital gratification which means as marketers, we must deliver the best customer experience, instantly. Time is scarce for many people and we want them to get attracted to our products immediately. Whether coming up with the best tag line and clever content, or creating appealing images to attract our consumers’ attention, they all must be done in the moment. Always be on the lookout for what’s new, viral and trending so you can find the right moment that matters.

And, as time passes, marketers must evolve by continuing to study their target market: looking to fulfil the gaps that our consumers are experiencing. We make changes to fit in, to stay relevant in the market while staying true to our principle of going “back to basics”.

The writer is Danny Chin, CMO, redONE. The article first appeared in A+M’s The Futurist print edition.