Marketing and Physics

Newton's First Law of Motion and Marketing

Newton's First Law of MotionEvery body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.- Newton's First Law of Motion, translated from the Principia's Latin.

This is also known as the Law of Inertia. Law of Inertia simply means:

1. 
   An object that is stationary will not move unless a force is acting on it
2. 
   An object that is moving will not change its velocity(including stopping) unless a force is acting on it

Having said these, let’s explore.

First theory

Customers or the market would be the stationary object. Now, force will be marketing, of course. If no marketing is employed, the consumers will not know of a new product or would not be motivated to even get to know the product. Hence, customers remain stationary, no sales generated from the product. But, if marketing is applied, it will be a force that pushes customer towards the product, hence increasing sales of that product.

Customer (Marketing) Products
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Of course, the marketing efforts could be good marketing or bad marketing, which influences positively or negatively the movement of customers towards the product. Example, Co Cola is the number one beverage in USA. Hence, Coca cola would not have been no. 1 if they didn’t employ smart marketing. Easier said than done?

Second theory

So, in this second theory, we assume the market (moving object) is reaching out towards the product. But, when a force acts upon it, the moving object stops. Here, the force would be competition. When a new product emerges in the market, with an equally smart marketing strategy, it is a force to reckon with that eventually leads to customers switching to this new product (customers stop buying from the first brand) In common sense, we know the movement of sales of a product will stop if no efforts are put to it. Nothing moves forever. Rethink your strategies if you think you can rest on your laurels after you see booming sales on your product.

Scientifically, according to Newton's laws, this is because a force is acting on the object and, this force, is in the direction opposite the movement. It's this force which causes the object to slow to a stop. Hence, competitors will strategize their marketing to move away from your product to their product, so the customers will stop moving to your product and to theirs instead. In the absence (or virtual absence) of such a force (competition), this is when total monopoly of your product in the market happens. In real life, this is really not possible.

Marketing----->Customers<-----Competitors

Another way of looking at Newton’s law:

A body that is acted on by no net force moves at a constant velocity (which may be zero) and zero acceleration

So with no net force, the object just keeps doing what it is doing. It is important to note the words net force. This means the total forces upon the object must add up to zero. An object sitting on my floor has a gravitational force pulling it downward, but there is also a normal force pushing upward from the floor, so the net force is zero - therefore it doesn’t move.

Marketing
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Customer
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Market Inertia

This is what happens when marketers are too happy with their sales of product and start neglecting marketing strategies. Market inertia is the customers' resistance to marketing strategies or the market's state of rest (no consumption, no sales) and it happens all the time. When marketing strategies dip and market inertia is ever present, sales of your product comes to a standstill. This is what I call stagnation. In other words, you are losing out on market share and revenues. Wake up!

Ideally, marketing efforts should be more like this:

Marketing-----> Customer
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Market Inertia

Whereby, Marketing > Market inertia

Having said, when your marketing strategy is more powerful than market inertia, it pushes customers towards you. For example, why is Rolex such a popular watch brand when it is priced way higher than other watches? It's because the brand name itself, is a marketing strategy. The brand name is so powerful that it is greater than market inertia, so, there will still be a line of customers for them.

Marketing is not just pure science; it's a little of intuition and common sense and taking bold risks. If you’re already a Rolex, kudos to you.