What is Marketing by Harvard Business Review

22 Dec 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:00

In this segment, Feras Alhlou presents the Harvard Business School definition of marketing as the process of creating value by deeply understanding customer needs. He emphasizes that service providers must generate value by aligning their offerings with those needs and delivering innovative products or services. For non‑tech or service‑focused businesses, innovation can manifest through pricing strategies, superior customer care, and responsiveness, helping them differentiate in the market. Alhlou also highlights that the created value must be effectively communicated through various marketing channels and a cohesive brand strategy, ensuring the packaging and messaging of the service reach the target audience.

Chapters

Let me define marketing for you. And the definition I like the most is the one by Harvard Business School. It says marketing helps a firm in creating value by better understanding the needs of its customers. So you as a service provider, you must create value. You must be able to understand the needs of your audience and connect your services, what you offer to those customers. And then it says, and you provide the customers with innovative products and services. So whatever you offer, it has to be innovative. Now you might say, I'm not in tech, I'm not a product startup, I'm a services startup. How do I innovate? Innovate around pricing, around customer care, around responsiveness. Find ways to differentiate yourself. Now, the second part of the definition, it says the value is communicated through a variety of channels as well as through the brand strategy of the company. So the value that you have and the packaging of that service has to be communicated through media channels, through marketing channels.