According to Wikipedia, the American Marketing Association defines marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”
Okay. That sounds like… fun.
Here’s my take: you have something you want to sell, and you need to reach your buyers. There’s a lot of noise out there. You want to stand out from the rest of the crowd.
In practice, what good marketing does is create an experience. It ignites the imagination.
Whether you’re spurring people into action against climate change or making them salivate over your organic chocolate, good marketing is a creative endeavour, and guess what—you’re good at being creative.
The basic concepts of marketing aren’t a deep, dark secret, and as in the definition above, the process can sound pretty dry. But if you approach marketing your work as a creative challenge—if you think of it as crafting a compelling experience for your audience—marketing can (and should) be a natural extension of the creative work you already do, whether you’re a die-hard do-it-yourselfer or prefer to call in the pros.
So. Let’s have at it.
Flickr Creative Commons image by John-Morgan
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