Let's start with the bad news about
marketing:
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"Just because you can market doesn't mean that you have automatically found
a real market."
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"Just because you have identified a real market, doesn't mean that you can
market effectively to it."
As a concept – even as a function –
marketing is so... well, so squishy. Right? "VP of
Marketing." Yeah, sure. What do those people really do
all day? Good golfers, I suppose. OK, so that's not the story.
But what is? Everybody knows that marketing has something to do with
advertising. In fact, they are often lumped together ("marketing" is
erroneously substituted as a more highfallutin term for "advertising").
But the two are truly different functions.
Marketing is the broad process of
getting your company
positioned so that the messages and content
communicated by its advertising will then be (1) received positively and (2)
understood accurately and (3) accepted as valid. Those three steps are
related but they are each distinct. If this still sounds fuzzy,
re-read the paragraph and think about it before proceeding further.
Differentiation Strategies
Surprise To Win: 3 Strategies
Buzz Marketing
Although the process of
marketing may be diffuse and although the actual techniques of
marketing widely differ from one company to another, the objectives
of marketing remain remarkably constant. Trade shows,
authoring papers, and attending industry meetings, making speeches,
serving on committees, and community projects can all be part of a
marketing program. Making your entity visible in a positive
setting is the key concept behind marketing. Marketing is not
selling or
advertising your specific product or service. Each
of those functions must be budgeted and pursued in its own terms.
Marketing is different.
For example, by writing this paper I
am engaged in marketing the entity with which I am associated.
I am specifically not advertising the activities of the entity nor
am I selling you anything. Notice that the content of this
paper has nothing directly to do with what my particular
organization does as its business activity (i.e., investing
long-term equity capital in promising young ventures).
However, you, as the reader, end up able at least to form some
initial attitudes about my organization as a result of reading this
paper. The way I write and the way I handle ideas provide you
with a basis for forming certain expectations and attitudes about my
organization. Hopefully, these are positive.
Selling
Is Problem Solving
Creating Customer Value: 9 Questions To Answer
Both the message content and the
methods of marketing are different than the message and methods used
in advertising. Both functions are critical to success.
But they are different. Read also the paper
called
The 4-1/2
Marketing Issues that Entrepreneurs Absolutely Must Get Right.
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