Mar 20, 2013
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Marketing: What is it?
Some say, marketing is advertising – pretty much the same thing right? Some say that marketing is selling or they confuse the two.
This old definition from just after the internet was created is also a great start to what marketing is but isn’t it confusing? Even after reading it, it sounds like even the definition itself isn’t sure what marketing is.
Great Definition for Marketing
A millionaire marketing mentor of mine once said,
I’ve defined marketing as ‘helping people who need each other find each other’ and that is best accomplished by clearly and effectively communicating who you are and what problems you solve, which of course requires that you know who you are in the first place and you know how to communicate it.
The Core of Marketing
1: Target Market
It is all about the target market. You have to learn how your potential customer thinks and draft messages etc that make those potential customers act. You have to read their minds.
This is the common theme to all great marketers and marketing messages – they know how to get inside of people’s heads and say the right thing to the right person.
2: USP
People are programmed to respond to offers that solve their problems. So ask yourself, what is my target market’s nastiest, smelliest, ugliest, problem? The top 3 problems in a market usually never go away. They will always be a problem till the end of time – that is why there is a business/product.
This is why developing your USP and your brand messaging is so important.
The Process of Marketing
1: Strategy:
Marketing strategy, brand strategy, media strategy and other strategies should be defined before you move forward. The definition that these strategies provide you will give you tremendous direction and a framework for your marketing success.
2: Identity:
Your messaging, logo, colors, USP that define how you communicate who you are and how your audiences interpret who you are.
3: Media:
Example of media include collateral such as web, Print, Traditional, and other media that are used to propagate your message. These materials or media pieces must have a cohesive and creative approach that follow your brand identity and messaging which should be tailored to the core of marketing which is target market and USP.
4: Leads:
Lead flow from consistent and reliable sources. This comes from advertising (broadcast or otherwise) and other traditional methods for getting a message out as well as new age forms of advertising for getting a message out.
5: Software:
Software for tracking, accounting for and automating your marketing. This includes – Analytics, metrics, CRM, and other software to automate and report.
Take-Aways
If you think of your marketing from this framework and it should do a few things for you:
- You should be able to better evaluate your marketing. Use this model as a FILTER or BAROMETER for understanding how well you are doing. Ask yourself how solid your marketing is in each of these 5 areas.
- You should be able to realize that marketing may be a little more comprehensive than you thought. Perhaps you thought (subconsciously even) that marketing was pretty much just advertising. If you stop thinking that way, and think of marketing as these 5 areas, you will realize what marketing is not and this should help you begin to improve the way you think about marketing.