The Marketing Peg

I had my hell week last week with 3 exams which were all marketing modules. Then I thought about how nice it would be if I were back in Copenhagen listening to the Services Marketing teacher speak and only attend an verbal/oral test (aptly called oral defense which lasts for only 20 min). Thinking about him made me remember of his most favourite topic - benchmarking. I remember he always told us that a marketer has to not only know the theories behind marketing, but also how to be creative. Is creativity born or made? Well, to him, it can be trained. How? One way is benchmarking . The norm for benchmarking is to compare yourself to the best there is in the industry. But to him, this is being myopic. His favourite line... " Do what McDonald's does. Mac benchmarks itself against, not KFC, not another fastfood restaurant, but F1 " Yes, Formula 1 . It's a good benchmark if you consider that when it comes to the pit stop, the personnels handling the racing car have to be ...

In the past, we were all so focused on the traditional type of marketing. Usually with its main focus on products, and of course, the most popular strategy in marketing are the 4 Ps and how you manage them. The 4 Ps , they also mean product, price, promotion and place . I've been so familiar with that ever since my MKT1001 Principles of Marketing course in NUS. Never forgot about that. In my basic marketing class, I was taught of how to position the product. Many models such as the Ansoff Matrix was applied. Everything was about the product : How you should design the product , whether its functional, how much one should price it, what advertising strategies are needed to promote the product and where you should sell the product . The main focus was... the product . Then when I come to Copenhagen Business School and took my Advanced Service Marketing course, it is all about the service - the experience. Marketing has shifted into a new paradigm that involves the service . Everyt...