Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

"Marketing" According to Shelley

It's about understanding all things relevant to your once and future customers. Knowing what they need before they know it themselves! And a few other things, like

- Where they are, how many there are
- What will get and keep their attention
- What they're willing to spend on your stuff
- Who they trust
- How they buy and don't buy
- Who else is selling to them

Marketing whisks that knowledge together and bakes it into a strategic plan for delivering as much of your product as possible to as many customers as possible. GREAT marketing executes the plan.

Hi ggg,

Well, I think you have already been enlightened more than you might think because you have just marketed an answer out of us for what we hope at best is a small percentage of an aggregate 30 points! (so it definitely isn't your selling price).

In doing this you are:

Meeting organizational goals (your need for information) utilizing a marketplace (this forum) by planning a marketing mix to meet customer (us) needs of a product/service (our need for points, recognition, new business opportunities) either by buying, selling, or bartering, (for us, definitely bartering) and then executing those plans. (your post)

Thanks for providing your own great example!

I hope that helps!

Here is my definition in comparison to sales. It is short and sweet, but I think it speaks volumes:

Marketing - Creating the message, brand, and plan.

Sales- Delivering the message, brand, and plan.

Of course we could all write a book elaborating on the subject. Basically, it boils down to marketing determines the who, what, when, how, and why...then sales follows the marketing tactics to make it all happen. Please do not interpret my ansewer to be a derrogatory against sales...sales teams are invaluable...but they need to know which way to go...this is where marketing steps in.

Good Luck!

I agree with everyone above, their definitions all touch on core truths that are marketing. Ask a senior executive what manufacturing is or even what supply change management is, and you’ll get solid responses. MARKETING is more problematical to define (maybe it’s the design and psychology aspects).

In any event here’s an alternative definition:

Marketing is the activity that satisfies the revenue side of the business equation

Just three words are enough for my definition of marketing (it's what my simple mind calls the SCP principle):

"Satisfying Customers Profitably"