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What hackers don’t know about business

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Re: What hackers don’t know about business

#4

Post by mindcrime »

Marketing is about getting the word out. Think about ads and blog posts.

That just sounds like advertising & PR. There is a lot more to marketing. To crib the definition from Wikipedia (which sounds pretty close to the one I learned):

  Marketing is "the activity, set of institutions, and 
  processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and 
  exchanging offerings that have value for customers, 
  clients, partners, and society at large."[1]
From the same page, another way of looking at it is:

  Marketing is used to identify the customer, satisfy the 
  customer, and keep the customer.
"Getting the word out" is important, yes, but that's not all there is to marketing.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing

Re: What hackers don’t know about business

#7

Post by ananddass »

mindcrime wrote: post #4

Marketing is about getting the word out. Think about ads and blog posts. That just sounds like advertising & PR. There is a lot more to marketing. To crib the definition from Wikipedia (which sounds pretty close to the one I learned): Marketing is "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and so…

Agree that marketing is not just about getting the word out. But the hard thing about the definition you quoted is that it doesn't lend itself to focus. Its too all emcompassing and things like "satisfy the customer" could include awesome product development and customer support.

Re: What hackers don’t know about business

#8

Post by jmduke »

riams wrote: post #5

Doesn't LTV stand for "[customer] life time value," i.e. the amount of money you'll be able to generate from a customer during his/her time with your business, and not "long term value"?

I've always seen customer lifetime value abbreviated as CLV. That being said, I've never heard of 'long term value', and I think the author is mistaking this term for CLV.

Customer lifetime value is something calculable, even if crudely -- its amortized revenue per customer as retention approaches zero. "Long term value" is more of a concept.

Re: What hackers don’t know about business

#9

Post by caw »

riams wrote: post #5

Doesn't LTV stand for "[customer] life time value," i.e. the amount of money you'll be able to generate from a customer during his/her time with your business, and not "long term value"?

I picked up on that as well. Wikipedia seems to agree with us: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifetime_value

I agree with their points, but overall the article is just a little bit "off". Maybe it's the bit about the integral. If you had a customer pay you $1 every month, and they on average stayed for one month, your LTV is $1, not the integral of 1*x (1/2).

Re: What hackers don’t know about business

#10

Post by jgamman »

mindcrime wrote: post #4

Marketing is about getting the word out. Think about ads and blog posts. That just sounds like advertising & PR. There is a lot more to marketing. To crib the definition from Wikipedia (which sounds pretty close to the one I learned): Marketing is "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and so…

School of Henry Ford Advertising: Model T for less than a $1000 Marketing: If I can figure out how to make a car for less than $1000 I'll sell millions
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