What about the other P’s? Getting away from defining marketing as promotion.

There is a big misunderstanding in the world about marketing.  I’ve always thought that, but I’ve recently been struggling to fill a marketing position and it’s really brought this point home to me.  Like anyone, I’ve been trying to work my networks to generate applicants and it hasn’t been working.  It hasn’t been working because so many business professionals equate Photoshop use to marketing.  So instead I have a stack of resumes from photographers and second tier designers.  Those skills are great and I want somebody who knows what they are, but they are a SMALL subset of ONE of the four P’s of marketing.

Marketing is defined many ways, but I really like looking at the 4 P’s of marketing; Product, Price, Place and then… when all that is done…. and if you need it, Promotion.  Promotion, in my opinion, is the least important of the P’s (Personally, I follow one of my marketing professors who extended the definition of place to include positioning [placement] in the consumer’s mind (branding), but that’s a discussion for another day).  Promotion should be the icing on the cake, but instead, it is the measure of marketing folks today.  True marketers need to rise up and reclaim marketing from the photoshoppers.

In fact, I truly believe if you can really get the other P’s right, you might not even need promotion.

I work in concrete.  One of concrete’s ingredients is cement.  Accidentally say “cement sidewalk” in front of a concrete industry professional and you will get a lecture and vocabulary lesson.  My oldest son even lectured his kindergarten teacher on his second day of school because a book erroneously mentioned a “cement truck.”

So let’s work on our marketing vocabulary.  Let’s stop calling advertising, marketing and logos, branding.

Let’s instead focus on the total value proposition.  Let’s focus on a price that delivers profit and value. Let’s focus on a product that customers love.  Let’s position our product in the market in a way that inspires awesomeness.  Let’s leave the promotional marketing tricks and gimmicks to others.