Marketing, Huh... What is That Exactly?

<div> In all of my years working in Sales, Consulting, and Sales Training I have often been surprised by what people think Marketing really is. This topic comes to the forefront again for me today because of a conversation I had with a colleague of mine. We discussed the definition of marketing and found that, even with our experience and knowledge, we had a difficult time coming up with a cohesive, one-sentence blurb about how to describe marketing in general terms. This frustrated both of us and set me one a quest to see what I could find out about what others think marketing really is. ManagementHelp.org has a great a great definition of marketing. It states that one should: "...look at marketing as the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you're continuing to meet the needs of your customers and are getting appropriate value in return." I like this definition. It ties into the very same conversation my colleague and I had hours prior. The portion I like most about the ManagementHelp definition is the reciprocal value of marketing. Not only are you meet(ing) the needs of your customers but you are expecting a return. A return... yes, I mean profit... this is NOT, as my astute colleague pointed out in our little chat, a dirty word. In fact, your customers expect you to make a profit... it is true. They want you to continue to be in business so they can continue to do business with you. Business is a partnership and customers understand this better than anyone. So to be effective, you have to not only employ marketing tactics to reach out to them as best you can but you also need to have a strategy. Kevin Clancy posted a great article called A Five-Step Approach to Creating a Marketing Strategy on MarketingPower.com. This a great resource and covers some good, straightforward, and simple tactics one can employ in the application of marketing techniques for any business. There are many approaches, methodologies, and ideologies (yes, it can sometimes seem like a religion) that one can utilize to get the word out about their products or services. Additionally, with the advent of web 2.0 there are even more marketing options available to businesses. Whether you choose Email Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Ethnographic Techniques, sexy coffee cups, or old fashioned mail marketing the end results are the same... • brand yourself • understand your customer base • reach customers • make a statement • turn a profit The bottom line is that marketing is objective. Marketing is not only about how we see ourselves but, more importantly, how our customers see us. We labor to portray an image of who we are, where we are coming from, and what we are about in hopes of establishing a real connection with our customers. So to truly answer the question, of "what is marketing exactly?" we need to ask ourselves "what is marketing to my company?" and "how exactly is it that my customers receive my company?" If you can answer both of those questions intelligently then you are well on your way to figuring out what marketing really is for you. </div> 2009-04-30T21:57:45Z

-8.3584

192 4422

true

27474