Marketing can be defined many ways as evidenced by referencing assorted textbooks or even just doing a quick search online. At its core, however, I consider marketing to be how a business identifies or creates a need for their product or service and then fulfills that need.
How is marketing different from selling? Marketing, in its purest sense, is not about a business making a quick buck, but rather how to satisfy customers with their product or service and to have a mutually beneficial relationship. I really enjoy and agree with the assertion of former Harvard Business School professor of marketing, Theodore C. Levitt,
Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariably does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse and satisfy customer needs.
There are many approaches one can take to analyze a specific marketing project or issue. I begin any big picture thinking on specific marketing projects by analyzing the tried and true 4 P’s of marketing:
- product,
- price,
- place, and
- promotion
Much of my career has been spent researching, executing, analyzing, and honing the promotional strategies (#4) of new and existing products and services (#1), in which I advise on their offer (#2) and distribution (#3) strategies. I thoroughly understand and abide by the importance that all 4 P’s be well thought out and considered in order for a product or service to be well received by the target market AND profitable.
I have extensive experience marketing across many channels, including:
- print and direct mail
- website development & content management systems
- digital ads – including ppc and display
- sem – including seo
- affiliate
- social media
- mobile
- traditional media
Would you like to chat or exchange ideas?
Please feel free to email me directly, or simply fill out the form below. Be sure to include your phone # if you’d prefer a call back.