PASSIVE OR AGGRESSIVE MARKETING: Which Way?
The concept of marketing may be broadly viewed as the authoritative force behind a business’s sales and purchases activities.
The Chattered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.
Although widely considered a substitute term for denoting promotion and advertising, marketing goes beyond promoting and advertising stock.
Marketing consistently proves itself a distinct process owing to its unique blend of the 4ps-product placement, packaging, pricing and promotion thus the difference between marketing and promotion/advertising. To achieve a successful marketing strategy, there should be an excellent blend of the 4ps.
The generality of marketing activities can be broadly categorized to fit into either Traditional Marketing or Modern Marketing.
Traditional marketing strategies are the activities of a business focused on selling already existing products with the sole aim of making profit. It is characteristic of traditional marketers to deploy mediums like pamphlets, TV, radio or flex boards, for advertising and selling goods to customers whether they require the goods or not. Traditional marketing is a one-dimensional process which involves businesses thinking from their own point of view.
In divergence to Traditional marketing, Modern marketing strategies are a holistic set of activities geared towards creating an effective customer/product alignment. And just as the term implies, it leverages everything from New Digital Landscapes to Cross Platform Marketing to create a cohesive and seamless brand experience for consumers. To simply put it, modern marketing is premised on the understanding of consumer behavior and customer psychology.
“Somewhere in between the approaches to marketing lies the intensity of marketing strategies.”
Marketing is an essential part of all business models and in reaction to the drift into the digital age, marketers have either downplayed their game or played it over the board which explains why they are either passive or aggressive marketers.
1.Passive Marketing
Passive marketing refers to the activities put in place to explain to potential clients what your products or services are. Passive marketing includes creation and display of tools depicting what your brand stands for, e.g. social media pages, websites, ads published in the dallies, setting up a physical store etc.
Therefore, a passive marketer can be likened to a fisher throwing a baited net into the sea and waiting for fish to come fill in.
2.Aggressive Marketing.
Aggressive marketing is a proactive approach to marketing whereby marketers make deliberate efforts to reach out, connect and engage customers on a frequent basis whether solicited or not.
Before the digital age, aggressive marketers engaged their customers through direct communication, cold calls, flyers etc. and in recent times, the course has only gotten intense, no thanks to email blasts!
So, Which Should You Adopt?
If you’re like your customers, you don’t take a second glance at brands that fail to deliver at your first assessment and your BS detectors get turned on once there’s an unsolicited attempt to sell to you… nobody likes to be sold to!
Although, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy to go about marketing, it is safe that you find the thin line between both strategies i.e. passive and aggressive and build your brand presence on there.
If you’re wondering how to strike a balance between the two extremes, there’s active marketing to your rescue.
Active marketing involves customer needs assessment, creative thinking and strategic marketing activities to cater to those needs profitably. Active marketing is a unique blend of the elements that make up passive and aggressive marketing, as well as traditional and modern marketing, utilizing each when and where needed to the appropriate degree.
As important as sales is in fueling your brand’s performance, building a purposeful long-lasting relationship with your customers is arguably much more important because it guarantees long-term results when compared to passive or aggressive marketing tactics which guarantee short-term results if at all they succeed.
