One of the reasons I fell in love with the subject of marketing was that when I did my MBA I quickly realised that marketing is the very heart of every business. Without marketing there can be no business. Non-marketing people often hate it when us marketing nerds harp on about how “business = marketing”. The thing is though, it’s true. I cannot stress this enough, so I figured it would be good to enlist the help of two of my favourite business gurus in management and marketing in the last century: Peter Drucker and Al Ries, to drive home the message of just how important marketing … [Read more...]
Owning or Renting Your Marketing
Those that have been following me for a while might accuse me of being anti-advertising. So I want to address that today. I am not against advertising, per se. However, I want to make sure that businesses are always using the marketing activities most suited to themselves, their market and their brand, and activities that give them the best return on investment (hmmmm very much a business phrase! :) - and activities that can be measured to show that they are really delivering results and that all important ROI. Unfortunately, many of us just throw adverts out there and don't think … [Read more...]
Don’t Be Boring!
One of the things I keep telling people, that need to market their product or services, is to be different, be special, be interesting, be something that matters to people. I think one should always aim for making a certain group of people love your business, product or service. Some think I am crazy ;) But you know, I am not. Mom always said to me, "if a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well". Your business, product or service is not a small part of your life that you can just plod along with. If you have your own business, don't you want to do the best you possibly can with it? Get … [Read more...]