Postmodernity in Marketing
Marketing IS business. Everyone has an opinion about marketing, about what is the greatest ROI, what is the best new app, the best new SEO, the best way to create content, the best way to engage, and the list goes on and on and on and… And surprisingly many of those opinions happen to be true, factual and even helpful. But the fact about all these “facts” is that these are all just pieces of an ever-changing and rapidly growing puzzle. That puzzle is human nature, and the science is how “marketing” strategically attempts to understand this strange phenomenon known as mankind.
So What?
You can listen to a lot of good marketing advice, but you can’t learn it all. The truth is that there is not a singular answer. In marketing, there is no best practice. People are all vastly different and whatever you are trying to market needs to be suited to this constraint; all people are individuals and unique. Did you already know this simple fact? Great!
What Now?
Some people say that marketing is now synonymous with social media. I would say social media is one facet of what marketing is. Ultimately the job of the postmodern marketer today is to communicate. The problem is that technology and digital communication evolves so rapidly it is hard to keep pace. This is why so many marketers are getting freaked out and looking for someone to lead and tell them what is next. This is why you see a hundred to even thousands of “experts” trying to become the largest thought leader in their specific marketing field. Each talking head, thinking they think they know the secret to marketing in this environment. What they probably don’t realize is that they only have several pieces of a very large puzzle.
Time for Boy Scouts!
The BSA motto is to “Be Prepared”. As a marketer, what this means, is keep both eyes open, your ears tuned, and always be ready to learn and adapt. This is the only way to stay relevant in this postmodern, quick-moving thing we call life. No one has all the answer, but there are many people that have some of the answers, so pay attention, and listen more than you communicate. Perhaps the most important thing to being prepared, is being prepared today, right now, five tweets ago. You need to be able to act and react quickly.
So where and how are you going to start listening the discourse to find what is valuable and relevant to your business?
Branding & Design No To The Quo
Marketing is the business function that identifies unfulfilled needs and wants, defines and measures their magnitude, determines which target market the organization can best serve, decides on the appropriate products, pricing and promotion and distribution programs to serve these markets to develop a market orientation. From a societal point of view, marketing is the link between a society’s material requirements and its economic patterns of response. Marketing satisfy these needs and wants through exchange processes and building long term relationships. The process of communicating the value of a product or service through positioning to customers. Marketing can be looked at as an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, delivering and communicating value to customers, and managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its shareholders. Marketing is the science of choosing target markets through market analysis and market segmentation, as well as understanding consumer buying behavior and providing superior customer value.
Well I am not a business owner (really) but I do sell jewelry and clothing on my online store… so I guess you COULD say I am a potential business owner. And this is a very good question to think about! :). Thanks again for all the info… people like me really need all the advice we can get!
Agreed. Marketing is definitely important as is social media connections. It seems like the more friends you have, the more people like you and trust you and spread the word. That’s just my opinion anyway. Great article!