Seeking a response

What is marketing? The lecturer asked. As usual, there was no response. 

And there I was, sitting in class, listening to a management lecture. Today was "Marketing 101".

The lecture went on, the way it usually does, with all the students in th class sitting like corpses, waiting for another bell to ring, so that they could attend another lecture like dead corpses, just to wait for another bell to ring. 

The lecturer changed slide, after slide, after slide, filled with bullet points, and fancy definitions of words and terms, which, even if were absent, wouldn't have made an ounce of difference to the  crowd sitting inside the classroom. 

That's when one slide popped up that caught my attention. It was just another definition of what a "Marketer" is. By the way, as per the definition,  

A marketer is someone who seeks a response, usually from another party, namely the Prospect.

I don't know if I was high while reading this, but something about that underlined sentence struck me like a bolt of lightning. This is despite there being nothing seemingly profound about the line as such. But if one were a fan of reductionism, it would be very evident that WE, ALL OF US, are marketers. 

Look at it this way. If you are a mother, you seek response from your children(prospects) in the form of their love and respect for the love and care you provide. If you are wooing your potential lover(prospect), you, ideally, want a like response from the other end. If you are an employee in a firm, you seek a response from the company's end in the form of feedback, criticism, a pay hike or a promotion, depending on how you have been performing at work. If you are a salesman, you want a response from your customer/prospect in terms of either a purchase, or customer feedback of the product you have on offering. 

One of the greatest salesmen, Zig Ziglar, often quoted in his seminars, that it is impossible for anyone to leave the profession of salesmanship. This is whether or not you go from door-to-door selling a product, or sit inside a laboratory for hours, working on the next big scientific discovery. 

Sadly, there are few who want to take up a profession in sales. That's basically because we only visualize selling as conning people into buy what we have. And hence, selling gets looked upon as a dirty job. 

We are all sales pitches. Right from every word we speak, to the clothes we wear, to whom we admire, to the people we hang out with, everything is a huge sales pitch. There may be experts who say that "marketing is the art of understanding the needs and requirements of the customer... blah... blah... blah". Frankly, these folks are the biggest liars. Their definitions only make them feel a bit less guilty about their cons. Little do they realize that it is cons that have allowed for progress. Allow me to take reductionism to its extremes. Let's talk about sex. 

Let us assume two people like each other. Now watch this scene from the movie "A beautiful mind". I request you to not get bogged down by the title of the video that you'll watch if you happen to be curious enough to click the link that goes by the movie's name. Below is what the protagonist said to his lady he went on a date with, just in case, all the school and college work has driven the curiosity out of you...

Nash(le Protagonost): (To his lady) I find you attractive. Your aggressive moves toward me... indicate that you feel the same way. But still, ritual requires that we continue with a number of platonic activities... before we have sex. I am proceeding with these activities, but in point of actual fact, all I really want to do is have intercourse with you as soon as possible.

Now THERE is simplicity at its bloody best! No bullshit what-so-ever! 

Here's the deal. Individuals as part of a specie, get together and interact, for ONE fundamental reason, namely "To Mate". So when one party(the marketer) is wooing the prospect(the potential mate), he/she is giving a sales pitch for the genes that the marketer carries in his/her DNA. The sales pitch is to secure the future existence of the individual's genes, with the prospect's genes gaining the same potential future security of his/her genes, by engaging in the process of mating with the marketer. Basically, dating too is marketing.

I could have said the above by using the example of an IPhone, by just tweaking and editing a few words here and there. But what's the fun in that anyway? Besides, the mere mention of the word sex, or even any thought that evokes even distant sexual feelings, in the middle of nowhere, makes people listen a lot more attentively. Why do you think Deepika Padukone features in Nescafe ads, instead of err... maybe... someone's grandmother? No offense to any grandmothers out there. About grandmothers, they are the wonderful creations who tell us the best of stories in our childhood, aren't they?

Even their stories are a sale pitch. Observe how children flock to the older ladies who know more stories. The stories they tell, are a sales pitch to the kids. The response the old ladies are seeking is the company of these children, who listen to their stories rapturously. Both sides win. The old ladies get the company they crave. The kids get stories that will keep them happy for a long time to come. So everyone's happy. And if the stories are good, the kids will come for more!