Common misconceptions about marketing

Ever since I decided to pursue a career in marketing, I was astounded by the ambiguity that surrounds the discipline and those who practice it. To paraphrase the most common misconceptions, it would appear that marketing is perceived as the act of convincing someone to do something they would not do otherwise. Sadly, I have spent as much time defending my craft, as I have studying it, and this got me thinking. I came to a startling revelation. Most people have no idea what marketing is, and what a marketer does!

Most people equate marketing with advertising and sales because the latter are both common elements of most marketing strategies, and those to which they have direct exposure. However, marketing as a whole, is a much more complex and involved discipline. Marketing is the act of conveying a clear, honest and concise message to a well-defined, well-researched and targeted audience.

Good marketers will often begin the marketing process by becoming familiar with the product or service that is to be the focus of the campaign. Who will use it? Why will they use it? How will they use it? Most importantly, what sets it apart from competing offerings?

Once the answers to these questions are established, the next phase is to gain an in-depth understanding of the answer to who will use it. Who are these people? What are their likes and dislikes? Where do they shop? How do they spend their time? What publications do they read?

These insights will ultimately form the basis of all marketing strategy decisions from this point forward. Every tactic (including sales and advertisements) is designed to make sure that the right message is reaching the right people where they need it, when they need it, and how they want it.

Effective marketing is capable of capturing the popular imagination, raising the collective consciousness of the intended audience, and inspiring a specific action. The mix of marketing elements selected for a campaign has the ability to unite people towards a common goal, effortlessly identify and solve a defined problem and provide the essentials for informed decision-making.

Thus, marketing (contrary to popular belief) is not akin to sales or advertising, nor a form of blatant manipulation, but rather the result of careful study of both product and audience and the implementation of creative and captivating strategies to deliver pertinent information about the former to the latter so as to elicit a specific response.