What Is Marketing?

 

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Let’s face it, to the average business person, marketing equals promotion.
Marketing is what you say and how you say it when you want to explain how awesome your product is and why people should buy it.
Marketing is an ad. Marketing is a brochure. Marketing is a press release. And more recently, Marketing is a Facebook FB -0.21% page or a Twitter account.

Marketing, to many business people, is simply selling at a larger scale.
The reality, is that marketing sits at the intersection of the business and the customer – the great arbiter of the self interests of the business and the needs of the buyer. As the global economy settles into a new normal of consistent doubt, Marketing has an identity problem, a brand perception gap, maybe even a crisis of confidence.

“Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.”  ~ Milan Kundera

When I transitioned out of a successful sales career almost 15 years ago, most of my peers thought I was crazy. The head of our division hung up on me (it wasn’t the first time).
Increasingly, after more and more conversations with real customers, I had bought in to the idea that marketing represented the future. I sold what was “in the sales bag.”
But I wanted to help shape the future. Naive? Probably. Delusional? Certainly. Possible? Definitely!

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” ~ Peter F. Drucker

Marketing is not about who can talk faster, or close better. It is about deep psychological understanding of customer needs. Steve Jobs had this gift better than almost any example. Henry Ford. Thomas Edison. Every innovation in the history of the world combined an uncanny understanding of human needs and the innovative vision to deliver it.

“Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.” ~ David Packard

If business is composed of marketing and innovation, and marketing is about deep customer insights, then marketing is the job of every employee.
“Social media” has only made this point painfully clear: every employee is an extension of the brand. The brand serves to meet the needs of the customer and the business serves to innovate.

Wir Sitzen Alle Im Marketing!

I’m not sure Google GOOG -0.61% translator gave me the right translation but whether you are in finance, or sales, marketing or the owner of a small business, we are all in marketing.
What is Marketing? I did a search on this term to look for some inspiration and found this recent article from Reliving MBA Days that does a great job reviewing the basics of marketing. But I’d like to hear your view:
What is your definition of Marketing?
Let me know what you think in the comments below and follow the conversation on Twitter (@BrennerMichael),  LinkedIn, or Facebook.

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• • G Emmer, CMO K&B Inc. 2 years ago
    In 1991 I was asked to explain marketing and advertising. My 4 words have been used by many others since then. Simply – Advertising informs, Marketing motivates. And to nail down marketing – Everything that creates an environment where a sale can take place. It is not any more complicated than that.
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  Michael Brenner, AdVoice 2 years ago
  Thanks G. I generally disagree with overly simplistic statements about marketing because i think it is, well, complicated.
  But your definition works for more than than just being simple. It gets to the heart of marketing and why it (or we) exist.
  It is easy to see why your statement resonates with so many!
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• • Dr. Brian Monger 2 years ago
    “Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.” ~ is not a quotation by Milan Kundera. It is a famous quote by Peter Ducker.
    You don’t seem to know a lot about marketing Michael.
    I suggest you visit the glossary on www.marketing.org.au. (world biggest) Other things there to help you out
    Reply
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  Michael Brenner, AdVoice 2 years ago
  Dr. Brian, I suggest you read Milan Kundera’s “Unbearable Likeness of Being” where you will find this quote that is often incorrectly associated to Peter Drucker. Drucker, himself however did cite the source correctly in his writing. It is a common mistake so you are not alone.
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• • Corey Weiner 2 years ago
    I spent five years in consumer research talking to everyday American consumers for the largest research publisher in the world, NIELSEN.
    Then two national Wall Street firms untl hanging out my own shingle as a freelance marketing communications writer.
    Most American businesses do not analyze marketing as scientifically as you do. This is why this country has seen a wave of self-proclaimed marketing eforts writing books and blogs and everything else in between charging others lots of money trading on intellectual capital.
    Meaning . . . most businesses are not sitting in a room understanding Ries and Trout and the premise to “branding.” They are doing what Americans love to do: take the easy way out and read one Seth Godin blog and a few Teeets and get a cute little logotype and think they have a “brand.”
    It’s sad.
    I tell clients and the general public when I do interviews this: “Maketing and selling and using whichever channels are viable for a given situation are great. But end of the day, if you sell widgets nobody cares about enough to want AND have money for . . . no one cares about your brand and all the free blabbing on the web you do.”
    David Ogilvy used to say it costs multi-millions to roll out a brand/product line and still a majority fail invariably.
    Today, those selling all sorts of marketing services will convince just about anyone a few blog posts and a press release means a brand as if anyone cares.
    Sit in a room on the phone and survey American consumers about brands and see what they say.
    Most businesses will be humbled; fancy technology and web sites and cheap social media aside.
    Big brands use those “cheap channels” to advertise and collect real-time consumer research like I used to do for Nielsen. It helps them plan advertising spends.
    Small businesses think they are branding. And some do. Some businesses catch on and fly high. But more should focus on not “yeah me too” marketing where they sell the same item for the same price as ten other guys on their metaphoric street.
    In economics, that is called price-taking.
    It’s bad.
    Reply
• Corey Weiner 2 years ago
  Most American businesses do not analyze marketing as scientifically as you do. This is why this country has seen a wave of self-proclaimed marketing efforts writing books and blogs and everything else in between charging others lots of money trading on intellectual capital.
  Meaning . . . most businesses are not sitting in a room understanding Ries and Trout and the premise to “branding.” They are doing what Americans love to do: take the easy way out and read one Seth Godin blog and a few Teeets and get a cute little logotype and think they have a “brand.”
  It’s sad.
  
  what is Marketing
  
  http://www.canadabusiness.ca/eng/page/2723/
  
  http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CFUQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessdictionary.com%2Fdefinition%2Fmarketing.html&ei=e0BaVOWIOdiRuASF3YLgAQ&usg=AFQjCNE3nUyzFm9sm6TGiRPg9fujPAQrXQ&sig2=9ML4iKpgt03ZlY8HhO8UVw
  
  http://www.marketingteacher.com/what-is-marketing/