Do Big Companies Depend Too Much on Marketing, Finance, Lobbying and Tax Rules?

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Do Big Companies Depend Too Much on Marketing, Finance, Lobbying and Tax Rules?

In his book Antifragile, Taleb stated that the core of business is offering an honest and decent product or service that gives your customers value for money.
If this is not the case, then it's likely that we're dealing with a fragile organization, because of:
1. FINANCE (leverage, debt). If companies spend more time on financial constructions than on a decent product, probably that makes them fragile in the end; see the summary of Taleb's Black Swan Theory.
2. MARKETING / ADVERTISING. Taleb says on marketing:
- Companies mess with your cognitive biases and that's sneaky;
- Marketing is basically bragging and that's bad manners;
- A good product will sell itself. Anything one needs to market heavily is necessarily either an inferior product or an evil one;
- Marketing (beyond conveying information) should not be needed and is a sign of insecurity;
- Marketing is meant to maximally confuse the consumer. For example soft drink companies that (implicitly) promise happiness to their drinkers in advertisements.
3. LOBBYING. Lobby machines of large companies spend more and more on lobbies, because they feel fragile without them. Because they are dependent on finance (low interest rates), big companies friendly regulation and marketing.
These lobby machines of big companies are successful because they can hijack the State or Country they're in, because if they go broke it would cost a lot of people their jobs.
4. TAX RULES. Buy leveraging all kinds of complex financial products, etc.
What do you think, do big companies have products that are good enough, or do they depend too much on marketing, finance, lobbying and tax rules?

		Comments by date▼ Comments by rating Rating
		3 Barry Schaeffer Consultant, United States
	Marketing Provides Valuable Information to the Consumers I agree with much in this post. What I cannot agree with however is the negative view and assessment of marketing and the other persuasive arts in selling products. The author suggests that if the product is good, it sells itself. While that may be true in a limited number of cases, it completely ignores the fact that for any product or service there are usually multiple vendors with similar or identical "good products." If we take the author's view, each of these vendors just takes a listing in the Yellow Pages and waits to see if the public selects his product. That has never worked, except for products offered by only one vendor. Instead, each vendor has both the right and responsibility to let the public know, as well as he can, the reasons his product is a better choice than his competitors... That IS providing information, and that IS marketing. If the author is criticizing marketing that is giving false or intentionally misleading information, that is wrong and will fix itself; as the public finds out.

		2 Lei Qu, Canada
	Where is the Good Product From? In many organizations, the marketing also includes defining a product. I agree when a good product exists, it sells itself. Over-marketing in this case is actually killing the customers' satisfaction.

		0 Edward Ramos Professor, United States
	The Value of Marketing @Barry Schaeffer: I agree. Most of the products and/or services offered in today's markets are highly substitutable. Surely each one has it's value proposition, however human emotions/psychology cannot be denied as part of the product buying process. Integrated marketing communications can tip the balance in that process and the law of consistency will facilitate the alignment of cognitive and emotional satisfaction when differentiation between products/services is low. Assuming that the quality and functionality of a set of products is more or less equal, marketing serves a vital function in motivating consumers. It certainly can create and help maintain brand loyalty as well.

		1 Madeline Rios Consultant, United States
	The Core of Business is not Marketing As a freelance translator and interpreter, my experience completely validates these principles. My "marketing" budget is less than 1% of my revenues, and is basically a website offering useful information to my customers and competition. How do I get my business? Purely by word of mouth. While I'm busy researching and improving my skills, much of my competition is busy lobbying and marketing. The result is that I have more work than I can handle because my product is better. Thanks to the author for confirming my experience.

		4 Ted Garrison, United States
	Marketing not the Core of Business Again we have a half truth. The idea that if you build a better mouse trap they will come has been proven false many times. Peter Drucker says every business needs two skills - marketing and innovation. He's not talking about your brochure - he's talking about your market research to find what the client needs and then innovating a better solution. Many companies fail, despite having a great product - the problem is the public isn't interested or they don't know about it. In response to Ms. Rios - I disagree with your conclusion - you are doing a great job of marketing or you would not be as busy as you are. Your marketing effort starts with your performance and obviously word of mouth marketing is getting plenty of referrals (that's why word of mouth marketing is the most powerful). Obviously, good marketing can't help a bad product or service - in fact it results in a disaster faster. However, without marketing you are boat without a paddle. At the very least marketing is a key to success.

		4 Dominic Owusu Analyst, Ghana
	Society Benefits from Marketing You may have a good product, but how would the customer know. Through marketing customers are able to know your product offerings. Not only do they know the marketed product, you are also able to bring the consumer closer to the organization. Bringing the consumer close to the organization will enable the company know the customer and what his/her needs are. This will help the company to come out with a product offering that satisfies the specific need of the customer. You will then be able to identify the changing needs of the customer and you will be able to deal with it. Since you are not the only organization dealing with that customer you will try to deliver superior products than what your competitors are offering. The customer in the long run gets quality products that best satisfy his/her needs. Marketing thus serves society with better product offering as a result of competition. The society benefits from the activities of marketing.

		3 Dr Brian Monger, Australia
	What do You Think Marketing is About? Some folk here think that "marketing" is only about Promotion/Advertising/Selling OR it refers to a department of that name. The primary business of any organisation is engaging with its market (the ...

		0 Ted Garrison, United States
	Monger's Got it Right @Dr Brian Monger: absolutely - marketing is everything you do. If your product or service is no good you will get a lot of negative word of mouth marketing which will destroy your business. If your pr...

		0 SETIONO WINARDI Business Consultant, Indonesia
	After Sales Service of Marketing Stages is the Most Important The after sales stage or service stage of marketing is most important, which is the way to establish good relationship and expand the business networking. If the performance of the after sales servic...

		-1 Jun Labindao, Philippines
	Marketing is to Communicate Nothing is more important and satisfying in a service-based industries than to inform your current and prospective customers on how great the products/services are that you're offering. Otherwise it'...

		2 Paramathmuni srinivas Kumar India
	Marketing is to Create, Communicate and Deliver If marketing is to create a product, communicate and deliver value to customers, society at large then is there anything wrong in it? If the advertisements are playing with emotions in the wrong way f...

		0 Ed Richardson Business Consultant, South Africa
	Marketing is the Core of the Business The author would seem to have a very narrow view of marketing. Instead, it can be argued that marketing is the very core of successful business. One develops and packages a product around the needs or...

		0 Nancy Muttu Manager, Uganda
	Marketing is the Soul of Any Business In his book Antifragile, Taleb stated that the core of business is offering an honest an decent product or service that gives your customers value for money". He later goes on to state that marketing ...

		0 nasera Faruk Milky Student (MBA), Bangladesh
	Marketing as Core of Business I do believe that a good product will sell itself but marketing also plays an important role to make the product acceptable to people. Also, it needs to be pondered that, you are in what environment? ...

		0 Marcel Wiedenbrugge Consultant, Netherlands
	What is Marketing About? I think Taleb's view on marketing is a distorted and inconsistent. Marketing basically consists of two words: to market and to get. Marketing is necessary to help a company find the right markets and ...

		0 jacinta wamwaki Kenya
	Marketing is the Core of Business Research on what the market requires is Marketing, informing the public what you have produced is Marketing, when you offer what you have to the market is Marketing and when you seek for feedback from...

		0 Ajogbasile Olamide Student (University), Nigeria
	MARKETING IS NOT THE CORE OF BUSINESS @Ted Garrison: I strongly agree with you sir. Word of mouth could also be seen as a promotion mix, a form of personal selling. It's a way of promoting the business....

		0 WALTER Pascal, France
	The Core of Business is not Marketing I certainly agree with the affirmation "marketing is not the core of business". We all know the importance of the PRODUCT itself to secure the business but we also have to admit even the best product ...

		3 Alan Kennedy, Canada
	Is Government Part of the Problem? This is a fascinating question. It really speaks to the role of government in the marketplace and how all levels of government can make the playing field very uneven for any newcomers to an industry. ...

		0 Sonny Vicente, Philippines
	Marketing isn't just Selling or Providing Truthful Information I agree for the most part with Mr. Nieland that a good product will sell itself but marketing isn't just selling or providing "truthful' information. It also involves setting up the capacity as well a...

		1 Jun Labindao, Philippines
	Marketing IS Definitely the CORE of Business Who will know about your business if you don't market it? Even casually telling your best friend that you're going to put up a business and what will be your line of products/services is already marke...

		0 Emmanuel Osafo Gyane Manager, Ghana
	Is Marketing the Core of Business? The pros and cons of all reactions on this subject are that marketing favors a vendor in a competitive environment, whereas it is almost of no consequence in a monopolistic environment or when offerin...

		2 Wangari M. Ndia, Kenya
	The Core of Business is NOT Marketing I agree that the core of business is not marketing. However, without marketing especially in a competitive business environment it will be very difficult to sell - after all business is not charity. ...

		1 Ted Garrison, United States
	The Core of Business Reading all the comments - there seems to be a debate back and forth about what is more important the product/service or marketing. That is the mistake - without both you will probably fail. In fact, ...

		4 Alan Kennedy, Canada
	The Issue is Dependence on Marketing, Lobbying, Tax Rules, and Finance I think the question here is whether companies have products that are good enough (the implication being that they sell themselves without any apparent marketing) or whether these companies depend too...

		4 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	The Title of This Discussion Has Now Been Changed @Alan Kennedy: Indeed you are right, the title of this discussion (which used to be: "Marketing is NOT the Core of Business") made members follow a side-track which was unintended by the author. This...

		0 Dr Brian Monger, Australia
	How can Companies Over-rely on Marketing? Since one of the major, fundamental, activities of a business is about the transaction between the business and its customers - How can companies over-rely on it?...

		2 syed ferhat anwar Professor, Bangladesh
	Sustainability and Marketing First if all, marketing is much larger than merely selling and advertising, which very clearly the author is considering as synonyms. The purpose of marketing is to ensure sustainability of the produc...

		2 Anonymous
	Marketing Reality Check @syed ferhat anwar: Thank you Professor, you have aptly summarized the theoretical terms and boundaries: essentially advertising and sales are two core parts of marketing. How you describe marketing s...

		0 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Future Countering of Traditional Marketing & Lobbying The thought that strikes me is that much of the comment re this posting seems to relate to marketing "as was"; marketing pre the internet. Marketing, of its nature will promote a product-service imag...