Central Theme
McKenna primarily argued that the nature of the business was rapidly changing at the time he was writing the article, and the change was irreversible. It was mainly associated with marketing. McKenna started his article by claiming that the 1990s would belong to the customer, which was simultaneously a good and a bad thing for marketing practitioners. It was a good thing because marketing was evolving, expanding, conquering new areas that it had not entered previously, and posing new challenges, thus becoming a more interesting sphere to work in. A bad thing, however, was that marketing was becoming much more difficult, and the growing competition in the field of marketing created threats for many businesses.
The author explains this change by presenting three models of business operation: a sales-driven company is aimed primarily at increasing profits, a customer-driven company is aimed at satisfying the customer’s needs, and a market-driven company is aimed at offering solutions from which all involved parties, i.e., businesses, customers, society, and market, could benefit to the largest extent. Twenty-seven years ago, McKenna was witnessing the rise of the market-driven companies era. Under those circumstances, the role of marketing was growing, and it was emphasized in the article that the change was not quantitative (marketing required more attention, efforts, and resources) but qualitative, i.e., marketing started to play a different role. According to McKenna, it ceased to be a function of a business and became a way of doing business. Instead of being regarded as a tool to sell products and services, marketing was acknowledged to be about building relationships with customers.
Another important aspect of the change that the author reflected on was the growing importance of feedback. Marketing had been previously viewed as a stream of communication from a company to customers. In the 1990s, customers’ response became more important because it started shaping the market to a larger extent than it had done before. McKenna predicted that marketing would transform from companies’ monolog into a dialog with the audience, and the prediction was right, as we can see twenty-seven years later. McKenna concludes that the key aspects of businesses became associated with marketing; moreover, key dimensions, including strategies and methods of operation, became functions of marketing, which is why, in accordance with the article’s title, marketing became everything.
Critical Analysis
McKenna’s article is written in a very confident tone. The beginning and the ending are particularly strong, as the former immediately takes a reader to the point, and the latter leaves the reader with a very strong statement to think about. Although the article is not strictly academic (there is no referencing), many examples and statistical data are provided.
Strengths
The article’s writing is clear, robust, and understandable. There are a lot of examples that illustrate the author’s points, making the article more reliable and convincing.
Weaknesses
In the early 1990s, the article provided a pioneering perspective on marketing. Today, however, the business world and the marketing world have gone further and changed significantly, which is why the article can be considered somewhat obsolete, which is its main weakness. Another possible weakness is that the article is all text; some visuals like graphs, diagrams, or illustrations could help readers understand the author’s ideas better.
Main Takeaways
Based on his examples and arguments, McKenna offers certain recommendations for marketing practitioners. At the same time, since the author concludes that everything is marketing and marketing is everything, any businessperson or employee of a company becomes a marketing practitioner. That is why it is important to understand that the article’s message is virtually for everyone who runs a business, works for one, or is interested in the business sphere in general.
The main takeaway from McKenna’s article is that the era which he anticipated and the rise of which he witnessed would be the era of knowledge-based and experience-based approaches to marketing. They are alternatives to the old unresponsive approach. Knowledge-based marketing implies that a company as a market participant accumulates a solid knowledge base on its industry, technology, and recent trends in the spheres of business and corporate organization. This creates a competitive environment for all market participants and a competitive advantage for those whose knowledge bases are broader and more consistent. Further, the company applies this knowledge to ensure not only that the customers’ needs are met but also that the customers’ strategies fit the current situation in the market.
Experience-based marketing is focused on three concepts: interactivity, connectivity, and creativity. Businesses that use this approach are dedicated to their customers, constantly monitor their industries, and conduct ongoing evaluations of their activities as well as external circumstances to determine which marketing strategies are the most effective. McKenna stresses that the key aspect of this approach is that businesses become much closer to their customers, competitors, and internal and external technologies than before.
Also, the advice that McKenna gives to market practitioners is to “own the market.” This view on doing business is principally different from simply selling products and services. Owning the market means to think of your company not as a participant of the market but as the leader of it. To own the market, businesses need to follow their most important needs and set standards for other businesses to comply with instead of trying to comply with standards set by other businesses. Businesses that own the market are likely to be successful, and one of the reasons for this is that they occupy a recognized leadership position and thus attract the most talented people with fresh ideas, which is exactly the prerequisite for success in the modern world.