Marketing: It is All About Strategy

The discipline of marketing is often oversimplified and misunderstood. Many leaders in corporations and organizations have limited experience with marketing as a discipline. They may define marketing by its most visible components advertising and publicity. When someone equates marketing with a logo or tagline, a website or blog, collateral materials, print or online ads, the strength  of marketing as a workhorse for market share and retention is lost. Marketing is about thinking - strategic thinking and then execution.  Marketing can be compared to management, which involves planning, budgeting, decision making and evaluation. You need all components, working together, to achieve good management. Likewise, the key components of marketing—research, development, promotion, pricing, placement and assessment—must be integrated for optimal effectiveness. If you undertake  all components of marketing, you will be putting the odds in your favor for a successful outcome - whether you are launching a new product or service, attracting and retaining customers or clients or spurring donors to give. Marketing is a sum of the parts and no one part can wield as much power as the process does together.