What is marketing?

What is marketing?

The Oxford Dictionary says that marketing is “the action or business of promoting and selling products or services; including market research and advertising.” Isn’t it funny how the definition has been expanded to include so much that it’s now confusing? If you have a cool logo, are you an expert marketer? What if you can create a website? Or, does a website only count if it leads to sales?

In our experience, there are lots of people who talk about marketing, and they miss out on that small word in the definition: action. What is the action you’re taking to sell or promote your products? How can you be active about it?

In business school, they teach that marketing strategy includes the six “Ps.” These are product, price, place, promotion, people, and presentation. How you use each of these levers and combine them to create a marketing strategy will determine the impact of your marketing and communication.

What that means for you is that you should consider each of these elements as it relates to your business goals. While there are six different components, remember that the overall picture must be looked at in a holistic fashion, as a small change to one may have big impact on your overall strategy.

For instance, if you were to offer a significant price break to a large portion of your audience (those are the people in the equation), then you may end up damaging the overall presentation of your brand by causing the value to be diminished. Sometimes that’s the right call to make, but if you’re trying to position yourself as a luxury brand, it’s probably not what you want to do. You’ll notice that your favorite designer brands rarely offer discounts or promotions. They rely on their products being exclusive, expensive, and elite. Offering a buy one, get one promotion at Gucci would quickly diminish the brand value because part of what you’re buying is the exclusivity.

How do you want to put together your marketing strategy?

Product – What product or products are you looking to market?

Price – How much do you want to charge for your item? How much (if any) of a discount are you offering?

Place – Where are you going to sell your items?

Promotion – What channels are you going to use to talk about your product?

People – What people do you want to share your product with?

Presentation – How are you presenting your product to the customer? What does your product look like and how are you talking about it?

Each of these elements has had much ink spilled about its importance and the nuance surrounding its overall impact on the marketing strategy. However, it’s not something that needs to start out as a complex and theoretical exercise. Starting out as if you’re trying to tell a kindergartener about how you run your business will help you truly understand the aspect of each of the elements as they relate to your business. As Albert Einstein once said, “If you can't explain it to a six-year-old, you don't understand it yourself.”