Flip the Funnel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Flip the Funnel - Essay Example The majority of companies are hard pressed to find new ways of bringing their products or services to a highly-competitive marketplace that is also becoming global. Technology has made the world â€Å"flatter† as barriers to entry are lowered and competition could be just around the corner or it can be halfway around the world. Technology has bridged both distance and time much shorter. Ironically, technology has also made the world more impersonal, because people want to deal with technology instead of dealing with each other directly and personally. It has become a convenient shield to hide behind actual human interactions, although technology has its merits. The rise of computer technology, and especially the Internet, has made the world much smaller. A good number of people put too much reliance on technology, forgetting that it is only a tool to an end, and not an end in itself. This subtly askew mentality pervades the world today. This paper discusses the merits of a new mentality in the world of marketing, a game-changer of sorts, or what management and business experts term as the new paradigm. This shift has been long in coming, because most so-called marketing experts are themselves so enamored with their own ideas, views, and perspectives it made it hard for them to see the light of the day, so to speak. The entire marketing process has been likened by the author of the book to a funnel which focused on acquisition instead of retention; this is the basis for â€Å"flipping† the funnel. Discussion The marketing function has been taken for granted for so long that people have a hard time trying to think up new things, or whether what they are doing is actually right or not. It is a primary aim of the author, Mr. Joseph Jaffe, to demonstrate how many time-honored traditions in the art of marketing had been wrong in the first place, by destroying most of the assumptions or accepted wisdom in this vital part of a business entity. People had always assumed marketing is a frenetic effort to always attract new customers, that this always-new incoming horde of buyers, consumers, or customers will save a company in the long run. The assumption can only be partly right, because at some point, the point of saturation will reached and no new buyers will come in. The economic recession certainly brought to the fore the many defects of previous thinking. It is a good idea to always challenge the reasoning, assumptions, or justifications in any practice, whether in business or not. This is particularly true in the area of marketing, because so much time, money, and effort are expended on the acquisition of new customers, but as the good author had pointed out, many of these newly-acquired customers get neglected once they made a purchase and taken for granted by the company. These disgruntled customers will soon leave if ever there is another offer by the competition, displaying their lack of loyalty because they were not treated right by the previous firm. It is only right that they leave, because no one should be in the bad position of being a good customer and not given enough importance by a firm. In a good example or metaphor, the recession is like a low tide, in which rocks previously unseen are now exposed for everyone to see. During high tide (or in good economic conditions), mistakes, errors, or wrong practices are not very material but a recession forces firms to re-examine everything. The author certainly did a good