12.19.2007

Marketing Really Can Be Easy (and Should Be)


Perhaps I should have started my blog with this post, but alas, I didn’t. I think some of my earlier posts were a bit more important (especially the Advent post). But a recent Business Week article amazed me that some of the largest firms in the world still struggle with how to embrace Marketing. The evolution of the Marketing tool kit with Google in the Web 2.0 world simply provides more digital arrows for the quiver and doesn’t really change the approach to Marketing.

AdWords are yesterday’s Webinars, which are last week’s direct mailings, which are last month’s tv ad, which is last year’s radio ad. My first Boss told me that Marketing was a mix of art and science. Pretty good high level definition (he is a man of few words). In my opinion, successful Marketing is defined by four key capabilities:

1. Positioning the firms’ products and services to relevant markets;
2. Creating brand awareness for the firm and its products;
3. Generating a predictable flow of qualified leads; and
4. Enabling the firm’s Sales organization

Even the largest firms with large Teams and astronomical budgets oftentimes get it wrong. Why? The usual reasons – poor planning and/or lack of control. And no funnel. CEOs (and Boards) embrace and support Marketing much more easily when they when they understand and buy in to the plan, see the results, and trust that the process is under control. When this type of systematic, “scientific” Marketing is realized, the art of Marketing emerges, and then the real fun begins.


Speak with you soon. DC