28 Feb 10 Is Marketing Really Necessary for the Success of Your Business?

No. It is not, if your all your audience knows who you are, what you do, and what you stand for, which I think is not possible. And till the time it is not possible, you need to use Marketing to inform them.

Marketing is nothing just a medium for-profit and not-for-profit organization uses to inform its stake holders —customers, employees, and investors—about the product, services, decisions, and actions of an organization.

What marketing cannot do?

In the above definition, we saw what marketing can do. Now, we will see what it cannot do. Marketing cannot do the following:

• It cannot sell products. Yes, no one and nothing can sell a crappy product. Marketing, at best, can create demand for your product by building interest, but it cannot sell your product, not at least for long.
• It cannot create need. This is another thing that marketing cannot do. It may influence decision, but it cannot sell any product, no matter how great it is, to someone who doesn’t need it. If I do not need a pair of sports shoes then no matter how hard Nike tries, it cannot make me buy.
• Marketing cannot create need. Marketing cannot create need. At best, it can fuel the latent need and bring it on surface (in consciousness) but it cannot create a need which has never been there.

And no marketer tries to do that. When I say this I mean ethical marketer. For dupers, no rule applies. A marketer only tries to convince you that his product can meet your need more effectively than the one you are using it, or it can make you realize your latent need.

When all consumers all all-knowing, and have reached the level of self-actualization then marketing will become useless, but we need marketing till the time this doesn’t happen, which I am afraid never will happen.

Tags: Audience, Consciousness, Consumers, Crappy Product, Decisions, Investors, Marketer, Marketing Success, Nike, Product Marketing, Profit Organization, Self Actualization, Sports Shoes, Stake Holders