by Peejaydee

Created on: August 26, 2006   Last Updated: April 13, 2007

1. Marketing is not sales.
Sales is the specific skill or act of closing the deal or brokering the customer's comittment to enter into the deal.

2. Marketing is about branding and profiling.
The marketeer will know how to build a successful brand image and how to raise the profile of the brand within its target market. Brand image is everything in some markets.

3. Marketing is about identifying the requirement.
Marketing provides a company with the data it needs to understand what the marketplace needs and therefore what it needs to supply. It's all very well having great product ideas but if there is no marketplace 'pull' for them, they will not sell. Just look at the Sinclair C5 - great idea with no market!

4. Marketing is about creating the 'pull'.
Some of the most successful marketeers have been able to create customer 'pull-through' resulting in the creation of a market against a perceived requirement. Just look at the all the products that you're told you need to make your life easier - how did you manage without an electric toothbrush!?

5. Marketing is about understanding your target audience.
The market for each product and service is invariably different. The marketeer exists to classify the market by demographic, wealth, requirement, etc. The marketeer will analyse the market and provide profiles of potential customers that will allow a company to design its products or services to have the right level of price and quality for that specific market. In the car world, just think about whether the same people are out there looking at buying Audis as well as Protons - it just doesn't happen. They are both built to different specifications, quality levels and ultimately, price. The respective marketeers have analysed the market and determined what their potential customer base will accept and actively look for.

Learn more about this author, Peejaydee.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.