Let’s start with the Wikipedia definition of marketing:
Marketing is “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”
Holy cow, what does that mean? Sounds like Jibber Jabber to me.
College courses teach the Four P’s of marketing: Product, Placement, Price, Promotion, but those take a full semester and several thousand dollars to learn.
Instead, here’s my free definition of marketing:
Convincing people to want your stuff.
That stuff could be a product, a service or an idea. Marketing is about creating desire.
So there you go, the purpose of marketing is to get people to want what you have to sell. That means marketing happens mostly in the mind of the consumer.
How do you do that?
The solution is to build a well-rounded marketing plan that creates desire. There is no one tactic or tool that will cause people to consistently want your stuff. A well-rounded marketing plan is one that addresses all four essential marketing spots:
ONE: Branding
Branding is your identity and the most important part of creating desire. The foundation of a brand is a brand promise, communicated in an interesting way. Read more on Branding here…
TWO: Experience
The customer experience is the critical intersection in creating desire. The customer experience is the number one factor of customer loyalty, and it is the spark for word-of-mouth. That’s where your customers become desire evangelists, convincing their friends to want your stuff. Read more on experience marketing here…
THREE: Conversation
Conversation is using word of mouth, social media, and PR to spread the word about your business. The more conversation there is about your stuff, the more people will want seek you out. Conversation creates desire to learn and experience more. You want people talking about you. Read more about conversation marketing here…
FOUR: Promotion
Here’s where advertising falls in. Sometimes, you need to keep the conversation going, and remind people to talk about you and think about you. Promoting your business gives people the opportunity to find out more about you. The key again, is promoting in a way that creates desire. Read more about promoting your business here…
What is marketing? Convincing people to want your stuff.
How are you working in the mind of the consumer to create desire?
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