Chris Shugart on Marketing |
Depending on whom you ask, marketing can mean a number of different things. Some equate marketing with sales, and view either one as interchangeable and virtually equivalent. Others see marketing as a component of business development as if it were an exclusive function of management. Marketing can also be about tabulating statistics as a means of tracking consumer behavior, and managing the logistics of making a product accessible to those most likely to buy it. But like the parable of the blind men trying to describe an elephant, each of these descriptions may be partially right, yet at the same time they are also wrong.
Regardless of how you ultimately arrive at your marketing plan, the final product will always be the content. Marketing doesn't exist until it takes on a tangible form, presented via a tangible medium. It's simply communication, albeit a specialized form of it. And whatever form your marketing takes, three things must happen: 1) It needs to be created; 2) It needs to be produced; 3) It needs to be distributed through media. All three of these elements must be present for marketing to occur.
Marketing can be an internal function. This is usually comprised of a formal plan or an official statement of company policy. Ideally, this would be something built around data derived from some kind of marketing research. The policy would be made known to all personnel to whom it applied, so that they could put the marketing policy into practical action.
Marketing is usually an integral and primary part of an overall business plan. Such a plan might contain an analysis of the
kinds of products a company can sell, as well as what market segment will buy it. It's something one might typically see on a business start-up prospectus. Established companies sometimes do this too when they need to revise some aspect of their operations.
Above all else, marketing is a creative process. And throughout that process, one should be mindful that your content is perceived through the mind of the consumer. Bluntly put, your company brand is whatever your public believes it to be. Perception is the reality. That's why effective and successful marketing material always reflects the reality of the consumer, not the reality of your company. It's also why marketing is the most difficult discipline in business to master.
