Marketing is a broad term that encompasses a whole variety of business activities. Like any other huge topic, marketing is subject to misinformation circulating and it can be difficult to make sense of what is true and what is not – so we have done it for you!
Here are some of the most common marketing myths and misconceptions debunked:
“Marketing and advertising are the same thing”
Quite often the terms advertising and marketing are thrown around and used interchangeably – but we assure you, they are not the same thing!
Whilst similar in goal and purpose, marketing looks at how brands can connect with their consumer and involves a lot of long-term strategic thinking whereas advertising is a component of the overall marketing process.
Advertising tends to be the paid-for content you release to promote your brand on more of a short-term basis; this is also going to be the most expensive aspect of your marketing activities. Marketing dives a bit deeper looking at who is your customer? What matters to them? Who are you as a brand? What matters to you? Advertising is a tool to communicate this.
A good way to decode between these two things is to imagine what you initially think marketing is in the traditional sense, maybe a billboard or a full-page commercial in your industry magazine? That is actually advertising!
“We should market to everyone because anyone could become our customer”
This one seems obvious – you would think anyway! Every single person thinks their product is just the thing EVERYONE needs. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. We love your business, and we love your products – we wouldn’t represent you if we didn’t – but for the vast majority of companies, you are not going to be the right fit for absolutely everyone.
But this is actually a huge positive as it provides us marketers with the opportunity to tailor and target communications to your specific audience. Targeting your marketing can see a much greater ROI as you are reaching the exact people that are most likely to convert from interest to sale. It may take a minute to identify but in the long run, establishing a target audience saves your organisation time, energy and money.
“My customers don’t have social media”
How do you know?
Facebook alone has approximately 3 billion active users and you’re telling us not a single one of them falls in your target demographic. We care to disagree!
Odds are your audience are on at least one of the major social media platforms, with a little bit of research it will become clearer where. Social media an amazing marketing tool that everyone should really take advantage of – whether it is actual lead generation or just getting the word out about your company, these platforms are free and should be used to your advantage.
Be careful not to fall into the trap of “we need to be on every social media channel we can think of”.
“Market research is too expensive”
Says who?!
There are so many FREE ways you can gather intelligence on your audience from online surveys to secondary sources like websites such as Statista that have a wealth of data already collected to draw from. Understanding your audience through effective market research is an essential component of successful marketing strategy.
Your market intelligence will probably be better if you are able to spend a little on it but that doesn’t mean you can’t get started for free!
“Good products and services will sell themselves”
We wish that were true.
Unfortunately, no matter how good the product is, nowadays there is just too much available to consumers and it is really easy to get lost in the noise of an overcrowded marketplace.
Eventually good, staple products will appear to sell themselves take Apple for an example; how often do you actually feel you see a piece of Apple advertising? The answer is probably not very often, but in 2018 Apple’s global marketing budget was a whopping $1.8 billion. Apple executives understand the value of investment in strong marketing messaging and the payoff becomes obvious when you look at the company’s cult following.
Now we know the vast majority of companies do not have access to a marketing budget in excess of a billion dollars, but the main point here is even the most innovative and arguably most sought-after products on the market do not sell themselves.
There are so many marketing myths out there, we could be here for days, but hopefully now you feel better equipped to decipher what’s fact and what’s fiction when it comes to what you hear about marketing.
Get in touch and uncover your company’s marketing potential.
