Many people think that marketing is about selling products – it isn’t. Marketing is the nerve system of a business. If we compare a business to a body, the brain would be the purpose of the business bringing ideas and strategies as to how to keep the business successful and how to keep it progressing. The heart of the business would be the director of operations. And the arms and legs would be the staff as these are the critical components which keep the business moving.

Marketing involves a bit of everything really, as it touches all aspects of the business body we’ve just described.

Now marketing is often looked upon as an ‘easy’ job because it’s not. Industries all over the world would not be successful if it wasn’t for the marketing strategies put in place by a marketing team. Now I’m sure you’re wondering ‘if marketing isn’t selling products then what is?’ Well marketing is meeting the needs and wants of the customers. It is also understanding your customers and being able to put across products and services that they will realistically be able to use. Marketing will also cover questions such as what, when, why, who and how.

Czech writer Milan Kundera once said “Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.”  Marketing orientations and profit drivers have changed over the years along with society. For example, in the 1960’s the marketing orientation was relationship management and the profit driver was to develop and sustain good relationships with customers. However today’s marketing orientation is more focused around branding and the profit driver is brand value. What we see from this is when society changes marketing changes along with it. However the purpose of marketing has never changed, although the values and reasons behind it have. This unchangeable purpose has allowed it to progress into one of the main business needs in organisations all over the world.

Many industries, such as fashion, will follow for example of customer orientated marketing, as their businesses are built around selling clothes to the public. The relationship, keeping customers happy and being constantly ahead of any other designers/fashion houses is the key to a successful business. SIVA (Solution, Information, Value, Access) is just one example of a marketing model that would be used around a customer orientated business i.e. fashion houses such as Chanel. It didn’t just become a billion dollar industry over night. This is just one example of an industry that revolves around marketing, other industries will have specialised marketing strategies that will work with the business needs.

So now you have better outlook on marketing, remember you are a representation of your business and an extension of your brand.

Mila Joe Hart wrote this article about marketing on behalf of www.welwyntoolgroup.com.