What exactly is marketing?

Many people say 'marketing,' but I think some might not quite grasp what marketing actually is. Just hearing the word, it sounds difficult, doesn't it? So, this time, I will explain what kind of skill marketing is.

Marketing is 'devising a strategy to sell products and actually selling them.' It involves reading people's minds and crafting a story about how to get them to purchase your products. Marketing capabilities are so lacking that it's often said, 'The decline of Japanese companies is due to weak marketing.'

In anime, it's characters like Zero from Code Geass; in drama, it's Strategist Kanbei; in manga, it's Oda Nobunaga from Drifters; and L from Death Note (which might actually make it harder to understand).

Simply using platforms like Facebook or Google to run ads is also marketing, but that alone is weak. Running ads repeatedly and creating good ads and a good website. Relying solely on that to keep selling long-term is already a story from 10 years ago.

Nowadays, many people use advertising, and competitors are constantly vying for attention. The advertising 'musical chairs' game is becoming more intense year by year, and we must avoid a single-pillar situation where sales stop if advertising is halted. Multiple sales channels should exist.

User understanding, communication methods, and closing. Think of it as a series of steps.

Who exactly wants our products, and what psychological state are those people living in, and how do they live? What is the social situation, what is the current cultural background? Thoroughly analyze diverse information to discover to whom and what kind of information should be delivered to make them most likely to pick up our products.

And is the means of delivering product information advertising, or steady activity using SNS, or analog, or media? Can we achieve it with growth hacking, or should we invest in advertising to deliver it quickly? Furthermore, how do we get the users we've gathered to purchase the product?

We devise strategies and build systems by utilizing all sorts of tools, mindsets, and various methods. And once the created mechanism is activated, all that's left is continuous adjustment.

Connecting many gears to see if one large mechanism operates successfully and smoothly. If it doesn't move, investigate which gear is faulty, and ensure all gears eventually work in conjunction. It's a feeling similar to that.

However, even after creating a mechanism, there are times when the structure itself must be significantly updated with changes in the era. At such times, we introduce the latest methods and evolve into a selling approach more suited to the current age.

Marketing is the very power to create selling systems and mechanisms.

If you lack the ability to sell products, any business you start will fail. Occasionally, if a product is miraculously differentiated and desired by everyone, it might spread on its own to the extent that marketing isn't even necessary. However, in most cases, marketing becomes essential.

If you had something you wanted to sell right now, and it was selling as a matter of course three months later, wouldn't that be convenient? Marketing is the very skill that accomplishes that.

To actually get products to sell well, you must master many things.

Of course, how to create strategies, copywriting, how to run ads, customer analysis, and where customers are. How to create content to generate buzz, and what kind of content to create.

Additionally, how to build and energize communities. Website and ad creatives, and so on – there's a vast amount to master. Furthermore, in recent years, new methods and tools are constantly being introduced, increasing what needs to be learned.

However, once you get used to selling something and achieving results, as long as the product is appealing, you can sell most things. There's nothing more convenient than that.

By the way, you can market and sell unattractive products, but the probability of selling them significantly decreases, and there's no point in selling products that aren't attractive in the first place. In such cases, we sometimes recommend starting with product improvement. In that case, it's best to also propose methods for improving the product.

Don't leave selling to others.

I've written a lot, but the skill of selling products and services is marketing.

Often, some CEOs leave marketing to others, but for venture companies, startups, and small and medium-sized enterprises, if you leave 'selling' to others, no amount of money will be enough. You constantly have to monitor reactions and make adjustments, so relying on external parties will be 'too slow'.

If you do delegate, you should have a consultant who provides know-how and set up a system so that the actual work can be done internally. Alternatively, you should entrust it to a team that can come in and work as colleagues. Of course, that would be quite expensive.

First, learn to sell yourself and acquire the skills to generate your own revenue.

Unless you succeed in large-scale fundraising or have enormous self-funding, this is the best path in the initial stages. Please acquire marketing skills and try to generate sales. We will provide you with the methods from scratch.