What is marketing?

Answering the question What is marketing? is a little more involved than you might first think.

Because to a lot of very smart business people, the word “marketing” is synonymous with the words “advertising” and “promotion.”

Not so.

Let me paint you a picture.

Think of the term “Marketing” as the hub of a bicycle wheel. (ten-speed, mountain bike…doesn’t matter). Now, picture the spokes coming out from the hub. Those spokes are the terms advertising, promotion, public relations, sales, market research, product development, new business development, and even company culture. The spokes support the hub and make it turn, but without the hub, the spokes would all go off in different directions.

Make sense so far?

Marketing is simply the process by which you decide what you will sell, to whom you will sell it, where you will sell it, when you will sell it, and how. The spokes are the “how.”

Small business marketing.

Because learning the answer to the question what is marketing? is fundamental to any business growth, a small business owner who wants to grow bigger must learn to be smart about marketing.

Unlike larger corporations, you don’t have the luxury of ready cash to throw at marketing and hope that something sticks and that sales increase. You have to be smart with every single marketing dollar.

So before you buy radio, “do” a logo, throw a newspaper ad together, or write a press release, think about this…where are you going on your bicycle?

What’s your plan?

One of the smartest things a small business can do is formulate a marketing plan. It’s your road map, so to speak.

A good marketing plan will take all the “spokes” and weld them together in a cohesive manner so that the wheels turn the same direction and no one ends up on the side of the road in a crumbled up mess.

Some important elements you will need to consider in your marketing plan will be

- identifying your target market

- determining their wants and desire through market research

- analyzing your competitive advantage

- developing a market strategy

Click on any of the above links to learn more about that particular subject.

Once you have your plan in hand, it’s time to put it into place. As a small business, the main purpose of your marketing plan will be to attract and retain an ever-growing base of happy, happy customers. To do this, you will have to a) spend your money wisely specifically on your target market, and b) fully integrate all your “spokes” into one, cohesive message that you repeat consistently.

Now that you know the answer to What is marketing?, be sure to check out the advertising end of marketing (if you haven't already), by clicking here.

Be sure to visit the other pages in the Marketing section of this site!

If you need to know "How to write a marketing plan,", click here.

Ready to exit the "What is marketing?" section and return to the "Small Business Marketing" home page? Just click here.