"We Don't Do Marketing"

Someone actually said this to my colleague Matt on the phone today.

Matt was calling the Managing Director of a manufacturing company in the North West to invite him to our free marketing workshop for manufacturers. To Matt's surprise the MD was the person answering the phone. You expect this in a small business like ours but at a ￡2m+ turnover business? Good on him. Perhaps he can then be forgiven for saying these all too common words...

"We don't do marketing."

Serious. He actually said that. But then again, most people don't think they do marketing. It's not something a lot of businesses do on purpose but any business interacting with prospects is "doing" marketing.

Philip Kotler defines marketing as “meeting the needs of your customer at a profit.” Surely, every business does that, else they wouldn't be in business for very long.

Having studied and just completed a professional marketing qualification with the Chartered Institute of Marketing I can say that a lot of marketing is bollo*cks. But Philip Kotlers' definition couldn't be more simple. If you meet the needs of your customer profitably, you're using marketing and you're using it effectively.

Marketing to me, is about finding new ways to meet the ever changing needs of your customer. Are there new ways you can deliver your service? New product features you can introduce to enhance the customer experience? Better ways to communicate with your customers to ensure they're getting the right information at the right time to create long last relationships.

If you are meeting the needs of your customer at a profit. Well done. You're probably 10 steps ahead of your competition. But don't get complacent. They will catch up and new players will enter the market with new ways to meet those expectations. (Just look at the gym market, new entrants like Pure Gym have shaken up an industry which had remained much the same for decades.)

"We Don't Do Marketing." Yes you do.