What is marketing and why do you need it?
Contrary to popular belief, marketing is not a synonym for advertising. Marketing is the art of customer satisfaction and the best marketers understand people. They understand what makes them tick, what gets them excited and what keeps them awake at night. This is why I love marketing so much and preach it so passionately. If you understand people better, you enjoy life better, you become a better person and your business becomes infinitely more successful.
Advertising is just one part of the blanket that is marketing and advertising alone does not work. Entrepreneurs are being fed partial truth and they’re digesting it, ending up full and frustrated. Marketing touches all areas of business, from the message, vision, pricing, placement, and promotion and if these areas are not in complete unity and balance, your advertising will almost always fail. Great marketing will create or redefine this for your business for better and faster growth. Promoting (Advertising) then becomes the last step in the chain of a well thought out marketing plan and it is a big one! No matter the size of your business, advertising should be done, as long as your business exists!
A prime example of this would be to see how often you see a familiar brand advertise. If an established giant like McDonald’s still advertises consistently with over $400+ million of advertising spend. Your business will definitely need to do so.
We’ve seen giants like ‘Blockbuster’ and ‘Toys’R’Us’ crumble because of their inability to redefine and move with the tide of technology and advertising investment. These businesses once reigned supreme, now they are reduced to nothing but a distant memory. My advice to entrepreneurs is simple. Understand and respect the importance of marketing. Learn as much as you can about your business, people, your customers and you will be able to help and connect with the right people with advertising. Once done, continuously advertise for as long as your business exists.