Why I love marketing

What marketing is to me...

I get this question a lot. My simple answer is, "My name is Mark, add '-eting' at the end, and easy choice for a career." Though I doubt that's the answer people are looking for (especially employers!).

Well let me break it down into two reasons:

1. Marketing is the "voice" of business
2. Marketing is wide-open

The "Voice" of Business

When I think of a business, I see parts functioning independently and marketing meant to provide synergy. This is both external and internal (e.g. customers and employees). But how does it do this?

External Voice

Externally, marketing listens for the voice of the consumer, competition, and market.

Examples of marketing functions involved are sales, research, and social media

Marketing also is a means of reaching these externalities to develop relationships.

Examples of these marketing functions are sales, public relations, ads, media, and research

Ultimately, marketing is a conversation between the business and others outside of the business.

Internal Voice

Of course, marketing provides an internal voice to the business itself.

Marketing helps interpret what the business offers and makes it relevant to the market.

Yes, functions of a business are experts of the offering, but it's marketing's job to interpret it to the consumer

Not only that, but it also translates the voice of the outside market to the rest of the business.

This is where improvements or new developments are impacted the most


Marketing has a busy job translating and interpreting, all to provide meaning.

Wide-open. Deep, yet simple.

Marketing is an ever evolving entity and wide-open book with much left still unwritten. At its simplest form, it's an exchange of words to others, making a news paper ad, or even making a survey asking, "Did you like this?"

Of course, it gets deeper and more complex, especially since we are an information driven society.  We drill and analyze information to help explain why we should continue employing marketing methods and strategies.

That simple commercial consisted of marketing research, creativity, sales analysis, and business strategy. And to me that's the amazing, challenging, and fun part of it.

All in all, that's why I love marketing.

-Mark

(Yay for the first entry!)