What is marketing exactly?

 Marketing is one of those words that’s so ubiquitous it can begin to lose its meaning. But since it’s in the name of our business, we have some specific ideas about what marketing is – and what it isn’t.

What marketing is…

…about the customer. Every marketing effort has to tie back to the needs of the customer. That means that the marketers working for your company have to have conversations with your customers. That can be one-on-one meetings or larger conversations through social media. But beware the marketer who has grand plans for your businesses without ever talking to your customers.

…integrated across the business. It’s easy to silo marketing. In some companies marketing gets relegated to creating brochures and catalogs. In other businesses, marketing becomes simply buying ads in print publications. But true marketing covers all aspects of a business. To get academic about it, marketing includes the traditional Four Ps: Price, Product, Promotion and Place.

…strategic. Now strategic is a word that gets used and misused a lot. But it’s important. To us, strategic marketing is ninja-like. It finds the weak points of the competition and goes after them. It doesn’t try to be all things to all people. It is efficient. It’s not flashy (unless it needs to be).


What marketing isn’t…

…stuck in a rut. Change is constant in today’s business environment. That means your marketing needs to adjust with the times. That doesn’t mean you throw out your ad campaigns every month, but it does mean you need to tweak thing and adjust your mix to keep up with consumers.

…buying a billboard. Don’t get us wrong. We love billboards… for some brands. But for someone reason, businesses love billboards and they think if they get a billboard, then they’re done. But ad buying is only the beginning. Marketing is about taking exposure and turning it into real reputation building and brand management.

…a style guide. Creative directors love to put together style guides. And they’re very useful. But they have to work within a larger strategic marketing plan to be effective.

There you have it. That’s what we think marketing is and isn’t. What about you? What do you think? Share your comments with us below.