PERSONAL MARKETING PHILOSOPHY

...Almost one and a half million from NZ alone.

Marketing is potentially one of the most maligned, misunderstood, over-used, over-hyped words on the planet. Anyone can claim to be a marketer or marketing expert, no degree required. The casualty of all this misrepresentation is the discipline (or craft!) of marketing itself. Managers in every organization in every field are under intense pressure to deliver results and marketing is one of the most important disciplines for delivering results. But unlike the Finance or Production or even HR Departments the Marketing Department is dealing with endless variables and unknowns that prevent them from guaranteeing results. As a consequence, marketing as a discipline is regarded with much suspicion as the purveyor of style over substance and half-truths and estimates in place of facts.

The fact is…marketing is not easy. If it were then we wouldn’t need marketers. We wouldn’t need research and we wouldn’t need agencies. The Marketing Guy is committed to helping managers and marketers enjoy their marketing, get cleverer about it and get better results. How? By simplifying, clarifying, demystifying. By listening to your issues, analyzing your business and marketplace and suggesting proven strategies for getting some momentum into your marketing strategy, helping you at a business, brand and people level. And the first place we start is by redefining marketing so that we are really clear on what we’re about. So what is it?

1. Marketing is an orientation. Marketing orientation simply mean to orient your business and brands around a market or markets. Making every decision with respect to that orientation. Marketing is ‘Market’ plus ‘ing’.
2. Marketing is a process. On one side we have a business of products, services or brands. On the other side we have consumers, customers or markets. The marketing process is the process of bringing the business and the markets together; which really means moving your business and brand (physically, emotionally or functionally) closer to the customer.
3. Marketing is discipline. It is a commitment to a course or direction or outcome based on the known facts. It requires organizations to gather those facts regularly, review them rigorously and refine direction accordingly. It is not fixed, it is flexible and responsive.
4. Marketing is a lot more like sailing around the world than it is like a hundred yard dash. It requires toughness and a willingness to endure and respond to the prevailing conditions. It also requires a certain amount of intelligence as well as brute strength. You need to be comfortable with tacking and jibing.
5. Most importantly, marketing is a state of mind. A willingness to inquire. A desire to know more. An enthusiasm for people and the myriad of differences between them. A willingness to be able to live with half-facts, estimates, shades of grey with a desire to fill in the gaps as your knowledge grows. A desire to define and predict what people want and a willingness to try to profitably provide it to them.