In the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, marketing is a crucial factor that can determine the success or failure of a business campaign. To ensure that efforts are valuable and achieve brilliant success, businesses need to develop effective strategies and plans and implement them at the right time. Therefore, timely marketing is the secret to building a successful brand.

So, what is timely marketing? How can businesses know when the timing is right? Let's explore these questions with M&M Communications in the following article!

What is Marketing? 

Definition

Definition

Marketing has various definitions, but the most common and well-known one originates from Philip Kotler, often referred to as the "father" of modern marketing. He defines:

"Marketing is the art of creating value, communicating and delivering that value to fulfill the needs of a target market with the aim of maximizing profit for the business."

Initially, marketing was prevalent and applied primarily to consumer goods businesses. Over time, its scope expanded to include industrial manufacturing, services, and commerce. In recent years, marketing has been applied across nearly all fields including politics, culture, social issues, healthcare, etc., playing a crucial role in the development process of every business.

Classification of Marketing

Marketing is classified into two main methods: Traditional Marketing and Modern Marketing.

• Traditional Marketing focuses on developing and expanding a business's products, devising strategies aimed at advertising products to maximize profits. This method operates offline through platforms such as newspapers, radio, flyers, etc.

• Conversely, Modern Marketing focuses on understanding and meeting the desires and needs of customers to satisfy them with the business's products and services. Customer behavior and needs are key to a successful marketing campaign, which in turn can generate profits for the business. Modern Marketing includes activities conducted online through the Internet such as website development, SEO, Social Media, Video Marketing, etc.

Marketing plays a crucial role for businesses in what way?

Marketing helps businesses understand customers

Marketing plays a vital role in helping businesses understand what customers want and need. Through researching customer insights, businesses and brands can identify consumer needs and use them as a basis for subsequent marketing activities. This approach allows businesses to deliver products that are suitable and meet the desires and expectations of consumers accurately.

• Helping the brand build and develop

  Building and developing a brand is a crucial activity for every business. Simply put, Marketing helps businesses identify brand values, personality traits to build an effective image, thereby helping communication activities create a good impression in the subconscious of consumers.

  
  Thanks to the image built, businesses can sell products/services and gain customer trust, contributing to increasing revenue for the brand. It can be said that some "giants" worth hundreds of billions of dollars such as Apple, Coca Cola, Nike,... are still very concerned about and focused on marketing activities to maintain their brand image and business development.
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• Communicating information about products and services

  Thanks to the proliferation of smart devices, most businesses today can easily introduce their products and services to customers through various communication activities. Businesses can combine both traditional marketing methods and modern marketing such as out-of-home (OOH) advertising, print media alongside social media, PR, SEO to enhance the effectiveness of conveying product information to consumers. These activities contribute to increasing the presence of the business in the minds of customers, helping them understand clearly about the products that the business is offering. Furthermore, with technological investment, marketing communication activities are becoming increasingly rich and diverse, breaking down geographical, national, and language barriers.

  
  
  

  The Importance Of Timing In Marketing 

  What is Timing in Marketing?

>>> >>> Explore M&M Communications' Marketing services 

The Importance Of Timing In Marketing 

What is Timing in Marketing?

Timing in marketing refers to a marketing plan implemented based on timing factors. The task of the business is to arrange the timing appropriately according to seasonal demand, events, or any particular special period.

Factors of a Time-Based Marketing Campaign

Time Marketing

Time Marketing can be simply understood as the process of researching the optimal "golden" time to launch products or services into the market. Depending on the type of product, key factors to consider include: product lifecycle, release dates, similar products, competitor products, etc. Through these studies, businesses can develop appropriate plans and strategies to position their products in the market.

Seasonal Marketing

In parallel with Time Marketing, Seasonal Marketing—based on specific times of the year—is equally important. Whether for consumers or businesses, purchasing behavior can change over time, especially during notable periods when attention is heightened. During these times, their buying needs increase, anticipating new offerings or special promotions from businesses.

Major holidays such as Tet, Christmas, International Women's Day, Valentine's Day, etc., are significant opportunities for businesses to create hot deals to attract new customers or to launch products tailored to meet consumer demands during these special occasions. However, Seasonal Marketing isn't limited to official holidays alone. Many businesses also capitalize on other times of the year to implement short-term marketing plans to boost customer purchases, such as summer season, back-to-school events, monthly promotions, etc.

Large e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Lazada, Grab, etc., always have specific times to launch special campaigns. Shopee and Lazada both have days like Double Sale, Mid-month Sale, End-of-Month Sale, etc. Meanwhile, Grab runs campaigns such as Dance Challenge and year-end sales.

How Should Businesses Implement Time-Based Marketing Effectively?

Understanding the "Golden" Time and Identifying the Right Products

Throughout the year, there are peak and off-peak periods that can significantly impact a business's operations. Therefore, studying the timing throughout the year can be very beneficial for businesses to develop both short and long-term plans, as well as breakthrough marketing strategies that can attract customers.

In addition to identifying these crucial periods, to enhance credibility, brands need to align their products or services with specific seasons of the year. It shouldn't be assumed that everything a brand offers can be sold year-round, except for everyday consumer goods such as toothpaste, medical supplies, cigarettes, or snacks. To illustrate this point: No one would buy a sweater in the summer, but they would readily spend on bikinis or cool clothing because summer is synonymous with vacations, trips, and for families, it’s beach time.

Understanding Customer Needs

For a brand or business, analyzing and understanding customer needs will greatly support sustainable development in business strategies. Understanding customer needs brings significant benefits to businesses:

• Attracting a large number of potential customers and maintaining loyalty among customer groups by meeting their essential needs.

• Researching helps businesses develop products or services that meet the criteria of being "right product, right time" to satisfy consumer demand.

• Creating opportunities for businesses to make precise marketing decisions quickly. This helps in gaining customer trust and developing superior business strategies compared to competitors in the market.

Samsung introduces phone models tailored to meet varying customer needs, ranging from mid-range to high-end products.

Conclusion

To save time and achieve remarkable growth, businesses should not overlook the "golden" periods throughout the year. During these times, consumers become particularly sensitive, revealing unexpected concerns and needs. Therefore, a timely marketing plan is crucial for brands to devise accurate, innovative, and effective strategies.