Knowledge Focus

Knowledge is key to both innovation and wealth creation.  No one argues that.

No, the shouting begins when someone puts “knowledge” into print.  Then those statements become the focus for support, disagreement, extension, clarification, discussion, and dialog.  In the process, learning happens and knowledge grows.

At Market Engineering, we’ve built our knowledge by learning, then building ideas into processes, then testing processes in the real world of business and technology.  We find that writing down what we think we know helps us to clarify it.  Speaking and teaching forces restatement into verbal and graphical presentation and enables a fresh test of the same ideas.

And we continue to learn.  We hope our knowledge pages will result in dialog that helps us both grow.

Disciplines of Knowledge and Practice:  Knowledge can be organized into categories called disciplines.  Every aspect of civilization has its disciplines, including science, commerce, government, the arts, education, and the military. 

In commerce, it takes the knowledge of dozens of disciplines to reduce ideas to powerful, profitable businesses and to reduce concepts to practical, usable products.  We must know a lot to earn revenues by competing for customer preference in one or more markets.

Of those disciplines, Market Engineering legitimately claims high expertise in:

                   Change

 Leadership

       Innovation

               Branding

                       Strategy

                               Marketing

                                      Technology Transfer

That covers a lot of ground.  Indeed, most of those knowledge areas involve multiple sub-disciplines.  To justify your confidence, we need to prove our claims.

Core Focus:  One common theme links our list of disciplines.  One underlying competency.  At the core of each discipline is …

Marketing done strategically.

We define marketing this way.

Marketing is the science of
making and keeping satisfied customers
at a profit, over time,
in a competitive environment.

Marketing done strategically is not an art form.  It is a powerful science.  We can engineer good marketing just like we engineer good technologies.

Marketing done strategically brings strong focus on customers, value, competition, profits, and brand loyalty.  Marketing is thus the appropriate foundation for businesses and many functions of business.  Businesses based on technology, finance, or sales rarely share these qualities. 

Marketing done strategically connects decisions inside the company to realities outside.  Given the chance, it organizes businesses to create durable wealth… by making and keeping satisfied customers, at a profit, over time, in a competitive environment.

As with an science, marketing done strategically has its disciplines.  Visit About Marketing for details.

Strategic marketing defines, designs, contributes to development, and launches effective businesses and powerful corporate brands.

Product marketing defines, designs, develops, and launches valuable products and powerful product brands.

Tactical marketing justifies purchase and creates preference through persuasive, customer-centered communications and brand development.

Market research discovers information about markets to enable strategic and tactical business decisions and confidence in long term strategic directions.

Sales develops win-win agreements by persuading potential customers to exchange money for products.

Each discipline can be done strategically.  Indeed, any other choice typically leads to waste and inefficiency.

Marketing and Other Disciplines:  Let’s see how marketing done strategically enables productive performance in other disciplines of knowledge and practice.

Change:  Change happens.  Everywhere.  All of the time.  From a business perspective, change drives innovation which drives wealth creation.  (A fascinating truth:  Every fundamental business principle is about change.  Look around.  You’ll be amazed.)

Purposeful change is just like any other product.  It (presumably) has value; it has customers called stakeholders; and each stakeholder must be persuaded to buy-in to the change.  Most desired change is one of several possible options (including no change), so purposeful change has competitors, often with very vocal advocates. 

Marketing done strategically is precisely the toolkit needed to define (change) products, design them for value to stakeholders, and persuade personal and corporate buy-in in the presence of alternatives. 

Leadership:  Leadership is all about change.  Leaders are not satisfied with the status quo.  They want to go to different places, get there with different strategies, and/or create a different buzz in the marketplace.

Leaders choose visions, clarify them, build commitment, and initiate change.  Marketing offers powerful tools for each step.  Indeed, whether consciously or not, all leaders use marketing to achieve their goals.

Innovation:  Innovation changes the world by meeting new needs with businesses and products not previously available.  In simplified terms innovation is development and launch.  Innovation implies leadership, which may come from the technical side, finance, marketing, or sales.  Innovation takes place inside companies more often than by forming new companies.

Strategic marketing is innovation at business level, plus extras.  Product marketing is innovation at product level, plus extras.  Those extras include customer focus and understanding of value, competitiveness and understanding of uniqueness, profit orientation and understanding of sales, and especially branding and understanding of perception.

Each extra impacts design and development.  Each results in a business or product much more likely to make and keep satisfied customers, at a profit, over time, in a competitive environment. 

Branding:  All too often, a brand is understood to be a name and logo mark recognized by customers.  That is a very tactical, self-centered view.  Marketing done strategically defines each brand as a value promise accepted by markets and mentally associated with names and logos.

Brand equity is the only truly durable source of wealth for any organization.  Strategic marketing puts brand development at a par with organization development, and that changes the way businesses and functions are structured and managed.

Product marketing puts brand development at a par with product development, and that changes the way products are designed and developed. Tactical marketing builds brands through consistent reinforcement of desired image. Branding is entirely about marketing done strategically.

Strategy:  Strategy is simple.  A strategy is a method for meeting needs, reaching objectives, and achieving goals.  We are all strategies; our products are strategies for meeting customer needs; and our processes are strategies.

Strategy is complex.  Choice of methods makes a huge difference in how a company works and how it is perceived in the marketplace.  One strategy never solves the problem; integrated strategies are required.  Strategies nest; anyone at any level of a company can be strategic.

Strategies can be developed from any perspective.  Strategies from a marketing perspective always have much stronger connections to customers and markets than do strategies based on finance, sales, or technology.  Further, marketing develops rich, detailed visions of businesses, products, and brands as a context for strategy.

Technology Transfer:  This is the process of moving developing technologies along value chains to full commercialization.  In classic tech transfer, the technology crosses organizational boundaries, as from a university to a company.  The most important tech transfer, however, is movement along value chains within companies.

Justifying transfer is a matter of attracting and persuading investors, and that is precisely the domain of marketing done strategically.  As with any product, we don’t transfer technologies, we transfer solutions, opportunities, competitive advantage, and other benefits.  Every transfer involves marketing, whether consciously or not. 

The Key to Impact:  Each discipline has its own language and nuances.  None are just marketing by a different name.  Instead, each discipline requires and depends on marketing in very fundamental ways.

All too often, the marketing component of a discipline is not recognized.  For instance,

Products are developed and launched without attention to brand. 

Companies are designed to innovate, not to satisfy customers, at a profit, over time, in a competitive environment. 

Technologies are promoted on features, not value.

Websites are designed to present information, not to initiate win-win relationships and build brands.

By adding marketing done strategically (and well), we substantially accelerate the timing and impact of other disciplines.  We accelerate performance quality and productivity.  We accelerate individuals, teams, functions, and businesses. 

Return on investment is both dramatic and consistent.

Are you ready to enhance your impact?

Ready to accelerate your performance?

The time for change is now,
and it always will be!™