the science of sales

Probably you have listen millions of definitions

of what marketing is, the fact is that marketing

is so vast and big that the best way some people find

to define it is to break it in its functions, methods and

results.

Marketing uses as raw material absolutely everything

that defines and give shape to a society, culturally,

economically and socially and make of it a digest-

ible and processable information that later will be

transformed in sales strategies and communication

campaigns.

The best way to understand marketing is to see

it working, marketing is a natural human activity that

is present in every aspect of our life.

Marketing is not limited to only observe and study

how a society functions, in some cases marketing

is so powerful and effective that it can shape entire

communities, defining people’s behavior, modeling

their perceptions and responses.

In conclusion, if what we look for is a definition we

can say in one sentence that:

Marketing is The Science of Sales.

And because of its profound complexity it could

be compared to any of the mother sciences such

as physics, mathematics or chemistry.

The Scienceof Sales

Ronald Paredes Graphic Design / www.mundosanto.com

AdvertisingAs a science marketing is composed by a number

of sub-disciplines that make possible to gather,

catalogue, structure and deliver the information in

a coherent way.

Among this sub-disciplines we find, Public Relation-

ship (PR), Sales, Packaging, Distribution, Advertising

and Branding, just to mention a few.

Advertising is a general term that we can use to define

all the different methods in which the marketing

research and strategy becomes a powerful commu-

nicational and sales tool. It is also an administrative

process in charge of delivering messages to the tar-

get audience using the all the available resources in

the most efficient way.

Some of the tools used in advertising to deliver such

messages are:

1- Print Mass Media

Newspapers

Magazines

Books

Flyers

Leaflets

Brochures

Catalogues

Posters

Stickers

2- Broadcasting and Digital Media

TV

Cable TV

Radio

Internet

e-Zines

Viral videos

Podcasts


3- Direct marketing

SMS text message

Telemarketing

Door sales person

Mail

Emails

Cupons

P.O.P (Point Of Purchase) materials

4- Exteriors

Banners

Billboards

Flying banner

5- Non-conventional Media

Air ballon

Zepellin

Gobo projectors

Gerilla marketing

All this methods are very flexible since they are

usually determined by trends and new technologies.

GuerillaMarketing


In older times branding was limited to just a symbol or

figure designed to differentiate goods with purposes

of ownership. Like branding cattle or sacks of seed

and food. Then later the branding purpose started

to change, in medieval times the hierarchical shields

or coat of arms would be used to represent not only

association with a certain family or a clan, but also it

would have a meaning implicit in the symbology and

design used in it.

A lot of people make a mistake thinking that a brand

is a nice logo to represent your product or service. Yes,

the brand still have a very important role as an identi-

fier and differentiator, but with so many products and

services in the markets it was necessary for branding

to evolve and expand its action.

There is a series of attributes associated with that logo

or label that would shape an image or perception in

the consumer’s brain, or what we call in marketing

terms “Brand Positioning”.

A good or bad perception of your brand is built rely-

ing on different aspects such as:

1- Service

2- Trustfulness

3- Quality

4- Promise

To understand better the concept of Branding we can

use an practical example.

Look at yourself in the mirror, you face, your body, all

your aspect would be your logo or label. That is the

first thing that people will see on you, like a product

in the supermarket shelf.

The way how you want to be perceived will depend

on how you present yourself with the right crowd.

Branding


Now that you were able to catch people’s attention

and get them to listen to what you have to say (sell)

then is when you personality comes in to the game.

- Are you obnoxious or a kind person?

- Do you know how to create a comfortable

environment for a conversation or are you self cen-

tered and arrogant?

- Do you keep your promises?

- Are you ethical and professional?

This are the attributes that will define you as a brand,

positioning you, your product or your service, in the

consumers mind in a determined way.

When the branding have been handled in the right

way then the miracle happens, something wonder-

ful, your product is naturally settled in the consum-

ers mind, now choosing your brand is an instant re-

sponse. A reflex.

When you think of coffee, you think: Starbucks

When you think of digital music, iPod comes to mind

Thirsty = CocaCola

Hungry = McDo

Internet search = Google

…and list goes on.

And then it gets even better, you brand name could

even become a generic identifier or a new word in

our vocabulary.

Now we can get “googled”

Thats is the final goal of branding, drag people to your

product in an instinctive way and hold that position

in the consumer brain.


This probably the most misunderstood part of the

process. Graphic designers, Art directors and Crea-

tive directors are very often disregarded as bohemian

people with talent for pretty drawings and the ability

of putting words together.

The truth is that the creative staff hold one of the big-

gest responsibilities in the process, in their hands to

produce the final product, the printed materials,or

the TV spot that will communicate the message and

at the end sell the product.

In order to create this material the creative staff have

to take all the digested information delivered from

the marketing research, branding guidelines and ad-

vertising strategies and decode all this information

into images, words and graphics that will relate effec-

tively to the right target consumer.

Understanding how human brain process different

kind of stimuli is very important for an effective com-

munication. How we respond to certain colors, smells,

tastes, how to visually or aurally excite the brain to

make you feel hungry, thirsty or even in love, are all

part of the knowledge considered to produce the fi-

nal piece.

Graphic design should never be mistaken as “art”, the

process of conceptualization and graphic design have

nothing to do with art. Even when the same knowl-

edges, concepts and creative process used in art are

used in graphic design there is still a big difference.

The graphic design and copywriting products are a

powerful communicational tool created under cer-

tain parameters, with a very specific purpose.

Creativity and Design


From marketing, advertising, branding until the final

design product, every aspect of the process have to

work as a well oiled machine, every single part of the

process is very important and must be carefully stud-

ied to get the best results. All the parts involved must

support each other.

As a marketing manager understanding the implica-

tions of all the process until the final product would

give them the ability of give a better guidance to

what it need to be said about the product to be sold,

as it is also important for designers and creative direc-

tors to acknowledges the advantages of understand-

ing marketing and its infinite resources.

A well oiled machine

Understanding the market is the only way to put your

product in the competition, a lot of managers and

business owners still underestimate the importance

of marketing.

One of the firsts questions we face when we have an

idea to create a new product or service is “would it be

popular?” or “who would want to pay for this?”.

Marketing can answer those questions digging in the

very core of the society. the market is not always in

the street, sometimes is mandatory to go deeper in to

people’s mind to find the essence of the market.

Its all about how to get there


Almon Brown Strower (1839 - 1902)

What they want?,

How they want it?

When they want it?

Why they want it?

How much it worth for them?

Are they willing to pay it?

Is it the right time?

Is it the right place?

There is no doubt that innovation is the riskiest of the

businesses, nothing is for sure and every step is an ex-

ploration, but also it must be considered that ONLY

thru innovation we can create new markets or even

better create new necessities, this also encourage the

creation of new technologies. Some of the most im-

portant development in the history of humanity are

results of successful marketing strategies.

Henry Ford wanted to optimize his production line

so he could produce more vehicles in less time, this

would reduce costs, making his product more acces-

sible and of course easier to sell. The first industrial as-

sembly line was born changing forever the industrial

process in all the world.

Almon Brown Strower (1839 - 1902)

Born in New York, worked as teacher, volunteer cav-

alry during the American Civil War and later opened

a business as undertaker. Strowger’s undertaking

business was losing clients to a competitor whose

telephone-operator wife was intercepting and redi-

recting everyone who called him, convinced that it

should be subscribers, rather than the operator, who

chose who was called he invented the telephone dial

disk in 1888 and patented the automatic telephone

exchange in 1891.
