According to Wikipedia, "marketing and sales differ greatly, but have the same goal." And there it is, the punchline to my football and sales story.
This is where we see all the players lined up and fans get to see if their favourites are in the team that will play on field before substitution, and when other fans feel this player should be on the bench and the one on the bench should come onto the field rather.
This is where brands are out in full force to penetrate the pushing of products and the online community is on the lookout to see which ones to 'support' and hit like or follow! And where, in sponsoring the products, we get to see the reach and engagement.
This is where, in football, players showcase their skills in response to the opponent's attacks and the fans get to cheer on because their favourite team has the ball. In other words, waiting for your opponent to make a move while you plot your response and then respond before the message is delivered, to the other's surprise.
This is where we see brands looking if they are fit to banter their opponents in conversations to show their fans who's the real player in the game, while at the same time marketing their products.
We all love goals. Victory strategy is attained when we win, when we lose, we get disappointed even when we gave it our all. Football is a beautiful game, but so are brands in the digital environment, who look at communicating their products, while still being playful.
When it comes to sales and marketing, there is a language that every brand is pushing through their products. Some brands are competitors of similar shows or products, but the language and tone matter the most in the content. If that goal has not been achieved, it's half time and time for another strategy to look at the opponents and see how they are playing their games and how they can differ in content but get more audience cheers.
Some fans are looking to attack the players (brands) as well because of trying too much or not liking their products because of the last experience, and other fans will bring them into conversations to see if they can take advantage of re-pushing their products.
Other fans will react to how they don't like the services of other brands, and bring other brands into the conversations to see if the brands can convince them that their products are better.
But does this mean selling is the final stage in marketing, where the pricing, promotion, place and product stages come to the forefront, or is being conversational (content and context) the starting point in pushing your products, without being a hard sell?
