M & M...

These two M’s have a lot in common. That’s how I have felt most of the times, although I am prone to think about these two M’s only on very few occasions…The first ‘M’ is Marriage and the second ‘M’ is Marketing. Instead of comparing these M’s, I can say they go together – Marriage Marketing. When I say Marriage, I am only talking about the arranged marriages. Let’s take a look at the comparison:

- Marketing is a societal process which discerns consumers' wants, focusing on a product/service to fulfill those wants, attempting to move the consumers toward the products or services offered. Marriage also is! Maybe the product, consumer, service is different in this case – The consumer being the Bride/Groom, Product being the long term relationship and the services offered are many…

- Marketing is fundamental to any business growth. So as Marriage! Where the business is called “life after marriage”

- The marketing teams (marketers) are tasked to create consumer awareness of the products or services through marketing techniques. And marriage has the marketers – The Guy or the Girl who has to create awareness of their interests, ambition, lifestyle etc., to the opposite sex before forming a relationship

- Unless it pays due attention to its products and services and consumers' demographics and desires, a business will not usually prosper over time. Unless it pays due care and affection, a marriage will not prosper over time

- Marketing tends to be seen as a creative industry, which includes advertising, distribution and selling. Marriage is also seen as a creative industry which includes advertising, distribution and selling wherein you have to be creative enough to market yourself suiting the needs of the other

- It is also concerned with anticipating the customers' future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research. Yeah! Marriage marketing does that too…Do a research in all matrimonial sites…you’ll know…:)

- Essentially, marketing is the process of creating or directing an organization to be successful in selling a product or service that people not only desire, but are willing to buy. And in marriage, the organization is the families who try to sell their own product to another organization where people desire to get this product…Got it???

Therefore good marketing must be able to create a "proposition" or set of benefits for the end customer that delivers value through products or services.

Specialist areas in common:

Direct Marketing – Guy and Gal meet at the Gal’s house – The ‘Penn Parkum Padalam’

Communication – Guy and Gal talks over the phone to get to know each other

Advertising – This comes way before the above two…Uploading your personal biodata in matrimonial web portals :)

Database research – Courtesy would be all matrimonial portals and Sangams

Event Organization – The perusugal who organizes for the PPP indicated in the first line

Branding – Based on the Caste and religion categories

Retailing – When everything said above works out and product is set for purchase

It’s a generic thought among most of the people that getting a job or running a business is much easy than purchasing a product in Marriage marketing…100% true…

Although I am not bothered about these two M’s, I am happy that my first business case study has come out well…’The Marriage Marketing’..Howzaat???