“What You Blow Your Money on without Knowing… And Will Continue to Do So Even If You Knew”

Marketing is wholly misconceived in our society.  First and foremost, marketing is not sales.  At the Faculty of Management, we teach our students what value is for people, how to look for it, and how to find it.  There are things that are valuable to us in life, and we pay a price for these.

Let me illustrate this point with an example.  A marketing manager that has my utmost respect once told me, “This watermelon vendor has got marketing figured.  He assumes that if we buy watermelons on our way home, we want to eat it right away.  So he puts this refrigerator in his stall, filled with watermelons.  If you want, you can buy pre-chilled watermelons at a higher price.  So people like me pay one lira per kilo of chilled watermelon instead of twenty kuruş per kilo of warm watermelon.  The customer is happy, because he goes home and eats his watermelon without having to wait for it to cool.  And the vendor makes a profit.”  This is a stark example of the value marketing can add: finding a meaningful solution for a group of people, and applying this solution to make a profit.

The Nescafe “3 in 1” was successful because it contained a value that was meaningful to Turkey.  About 50 million people in Turkey have an income of 1000 dollars or less, so they don’t have the means to invest in some products.  From this perspective, a jar of Nescafe is an investment, but many people in Turkey cannot make this investment.  The “3 in 1” pack is a product that meets the need to drink a cup of coffee immediately.  Although its unit price is higher, it meets the need if you have to have coffee right now.  This makes it meaningful and valuable to people of low income.

We are inclined to believe that if we buy in bulk, we buy cheap.  To the contrary, there are products that are more expensive in bulk.  Think about this example: The Ferrero Rocher brand of chocolate has two variants: a 16-pack and a 24-pack.  At Kipa, the 24-pack sells for TL 13.49, while the 16-pack sells for 6.99.  It is clear that the 16-pack has a better unit price.  The key point of the company is that although one variant looks to be in bulk, it has a different value and we pay for that value.  The concept of value also applies to manufacturers of diapers, beverages and other consumer goods.  Companies operating in different sectors apply similar marketing tactics.  What matters is to create value in marketing.  Ethics is very important to us.

In short, marketing is the collection of value-based abilities that enable finding the value for the consumer and share that value through meaningful connections.