My Simple Rules of Marketing

The following was originally posted on stevegrossmanonline.com on March 24, 2011.

It’s my opinion that Marketing is the most important thing a company or an individual needs to do in order to succeed. I say this because I believe:

Marketing is more than a message

• It’s early research – who is the potential customer, what do they want and where are they?
• Product/service design – how will the product/service meet the needs and/or wants of those customers?
• Packaging – how will the product/service attract those customers?
• Sales design – where do those customers shop?
• Pricing – how much can the customer pay and how much will they?
• Advertising – how do we tell the customer about the product or service in a way that they’ll “get it?”
• Research – is the customer happy?

Marketing is not the thing that happens after a business has created something and needs to alert the public of it’s existence. Marketing IS it’s existence.

Marketing is about the customer

I am NOT saying you have to sell out. The only reason people “sell out” is that they skipped the early research and have to change who/what they are to chase sales. You’ll never have to sell out if you take the time to think about your customers first, and always.

You are never not marketing

You do not have the choice whether to market or not. You cannot decide that you don’t want to do it, or only do it part of the time. If you do, you will still be marketing, you’ll just be doing it badly. And customers will know.

If you market correctly, sales will happen

The focus of marketing is the touch point between a product/service and the customer – the message that is communicated anytime there’s a touch. Do this well and you have a product/service that connects with a customer on a personal level:

• It meets their need or want
• It’s found where they expect it and want it
• It’s attractive in appearance/features and price
• They learn about it in a way that makes sense

Put this all together and you have a sale that happens simply and easily and without much effort.

And since you don’t have success without a sale, Marketing is the most important thing a business or individual needs to do.