Even those who call themselves marketers have a Madison Avenue vision in their minds, and even if they are talking about the latest Internet based, new media, social media, branding or viral market gimmick, they are likely still thinking about some form of advertising.
And therefore Marketing is advertising...or is it?
Did Google advertise in order to become the giant they are today? If I remember correctly, Yahoo had amazing advertising campaigns, while Google had none. Was it advertising that created the frenzy for iPods and iPhones? They had some good advertising, but perhaps there was something about the products themselves? Was it advertising that made millions of Americans thrilled to spend more than $3.oo for a cup of coffee at Starbucks? I can't remember a single commercial for Starbucks but I do remember seeing everyone carrying around those cups. Was it a commercial that created waiting lists for the Toyota Prius? Or perhaps a car company actually delivered the first meaningful innovation in forty years and everyone started to notice.
In countless cases, people are persuaded to value and ultimately to buy an idea, a product or a service because companies marketed. Advertising helped get the word out, but without something special to back up their claims, little could happen...even when they put commercials on the Internet.
So if advertising alone doesn't make a difference, what does?
An interview with computer hacker Virgil Griffith printed in the New York Times last week ("Internet Man of Mystery" by Virginia Heffernan, 11.23.08) put it surprisingly well, "You step back and look at the entire interacting, breathing system and pick out the counterintuitive, unbalanced, seldom-explored parts and look for a way for these parts to interact such that they play off each other, synergistically amplifying their power to influence everything else..." Reading this, I was able to recognize a true marketer in Mr. Griffith, even if he was talking about hacking computer systems.
Marketing is a way to look at a market, understand the system of buyers, sellers, suppliers and clients - what makes it all tick, what is really happening underneath the lies we all tell ourselves, the slogans, the official descriptions and the talking points. When a marketer understands how the system actually works and why - then they can change it.
They may change it with a new product or service, a new way to approach the market, a new way to make something or a new use for something. But when a company is marketing, they are essentially innovating a new relationship with the market or redefining what the market means and how it works.
That's why I believe that marketing at its core is actually Innovation.
...and advertising? It can be a lot of fun. It can capture someone's attention. It gets the word out. It gives people permission to enjoy or be proud of buying your product. But without meaningful innovation (marketing), how much is it really worth?
Advertising and all other forms of communication are powerful and important tools, but they in themselves do not market a firm, any more than a hammer and nails build a house. Skillful carpentry skills alone cannot make a brilliant building - it's the vision of what could be - of how to make something better, of how to manipulate the existing system, materials and tools to create a new and more exciting world - it's innovation.
iPod innovated how people can interact with their music, movies and even their telephones. Zune innovated nothing but spent some real dollars on advertising. Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama's presidential campaigns innovated how the US could be governed and what the US could be in the future while their competitors merely communicated. Actually, those two presidential campaigns are interesting cases. Both presidents were brilliantly successful communicators - but they were not communicators alone...the skillful communications and advertising was put to use by their innovative visions for where the country should go.
Their unsuccessful opponents weren't bad communicators. Jimmy Carter and John McCain both had skillful and experienced communications teams, they both were proven communicators who could influence people with their powerful rhetoric and they spent millions of dollars on advertising. But they didn't have innovation and vision driving their words. They weren't seeking an improvement to the systems, rather they were trying to make what exists a little better.
If you aren't innovating, I wonder if you are really marketing.
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