Some people think 'marketing' is organizing brochures, and trade shows, getting advertising booked and making sure advertisements are typo free.
Others perceive 'marketing' as 'selling'... getting people to buy whatever is is your organization 'sells'.
Street-wise executives of medium and large companies recognize marketing as managing price, product, promotions and distribution (place)... commonly described as "The Four P's".
Winning companies, global giants, heads of industry, and leading consultancies understand 'marketing' is even more!
(People wanting a more detailed explanation should go to http://www.launchengineering.com/marketing.htm)
However, too few key decision makers understand the power, potential and promise that understanding of marketing can deliver in terms of sales and profits.
Successful companies, particularly larger ones, develop an almost impenetrable aura of arrogance... smaller companies, who have not had the skills to apply the science of marketing, or recognize that an 'ideas guy" is not a marketing expert, have failed to correctly apply 'marketing' to their advantage and no blame the tool, rather than themselves, for that failure.
Despite this, insightful management asks.... "How can a company spend $5M in launching a product, knowing it is not going to fail, and how do they do that over and over again?"
The answer is good understanding of marketing.... small companies fall over time and time again, large ones not only cope with INefficiencies of scale, but prosper... WHEN WILL THE SME SECTOR learn?
HOW can "marketing" be properly understood by SME entrepreneurs?
(People looking to comprehend the breadth of marketing science should go to http://www.launchengineering.com/MarketingPlanning.htm)
WHAT can be done to differentiate between promotions, advertising, selling and the REAL meaning of 'marketing'?
It has been suggested that lack of education is the root of all the world's problems... perhaps we simply need better education for our executives?
I recently coached a CPA in their final subject, amused to see 'marketing' tools as part of the course work presented as an accounting discipline... however, this is the beginning of better management.
When is becomes as mandatory for marketing qualifications in marketing managers, as it is for legal quals in law, or medical ones in medicine, THEN we WILL see a difference.
