Do amazing products require marketing or advertising?
I’m frequently asked so I thought we should get into it with you. The question is intriguing because marketing and advertising (or promotions) are not remotely the same thing.
Product is the work of marketing. In fact, it’s one of the fundamentals of marketing.
Amazing products, brands, and artists require marketing; they’re an outcome of it.[
Let’s clarify that thought though as I expect (suspect) you still have a preconceived notion of what marketing means; and as a result, I’d bet you’re struggling to wrap your head around what we’re sharing here. Too many (too many businesses that fail) think that marketing is something you do when/after you’re in business – think about it, it’s probably why you’re exploring this topic with us – you have a product or you’re ready to sell tickets to get demand as an artists and now you’re speculating that you need to do some marketing.
You’d have already failed.
Marketing (and innovation by the way) was noted by economists as early as the 1970s (and probably before that; that’s as far back as my study goes) to be the most important thing a business does.[ The purpose of marketing is to create a customer and to do that, a business provides a product or service… that the market wants.
Marketing is the work of determining what that product is.
So in a sense, my point that amazing products require marketing, that they’re an outcome of marketing, isn’t entirely accurate either…
Product IS Marketing. Product is an aspect of marketing; and in presuming that marketing is what a business does, you’ve already put the horse before the cart.
Marketing is the work of determining a product, price, placement for, positioning of, and more, in a business.
Marketing aspires to eliminate the need to have to SELL that product, service, or demand for your show. That is to say, of course the product is sold; what we mean is that marketing is the work of determining how to design what you’re doing so as not to NEED to manually sell it to people.
Think Google, Taylor Swift, Thor Ragnarok, Tesla, or iPhones… no one calls and sells you those products. Those are amazing products. They are amazing products thanks to marketing determining what those products should be – how to be amazing.
The business then develops those products and fulfills them.
It’s said by economists that only marketing (and innovation) creates value… everything else a business does is a cost.
Why would they say that??? Because everything a business does is a cost to fulfill demand for a product desired in a market… marketing determines and creates the value of that product; and everything else the business does from supply chain to design to shipping, is a cost BECAUSE of the business.
Does that cost structure include advertising??
YES. Advertising, like Sales, is a cost that marketing endeavors to eliminate the need for. That’s not an easy thing to do and that’s why you certainly see some amazing products advertised. Coca-Cola, advertised. Google Search, not so much.
Amazing products are a result of Marketing.
Amazing products might need to be advertised. Then again, perhaps not. Marketing would determine that.
We can help you make the right investments; we’re rather passionate about helping you avoid making the wrong investments in media until you’ve done the marketing and used the technology available to know what you should do and why. Take a look here at how and let us know how we can help.
