At a glance...

If you look for the definition of marketing on the internet, you'll find at least twenty explanations.

Collins Dictionary describes marketing as part of a business that controls the way that goods or services are sold.

We would say the following: Marketing is about image building. It's about awareness. It's about niche targeting. Its about attracting high quality customers through your door, and making them want something you have. Its about attracting the right customers with the appropriate spending power, to return again and again, and make you profit.

Marketing is not something that stops and starts. It must be on-going if you want a sustainable business.

It shouldn't be the first thing to go at the sign of hard times. It should be one of the last. And those who shout loudest will be heard longest. The noisiest win!

There are many successful companies who have consistently taken their name and message to market, and to site a few on a large scale:

Think sofas, think DFS... think soft drinks, think Coca-Cola... think burgers, think McDonalds. Despite massive retail competition, these household names automatically come to mind when associated with a specific product.

Its all down to marketing. The same philosophy applies to every business including SMEs - small and medium size businesses, not just the conglomerates. As Leo Burnett quoted, in the marketing din of today, unless you make yourself noticed, heard and believed, you aint got nothin.

Marketing comprises many things - a mix of Advertising, CRM, PR, Branding and Design, it even goes down to Premises, and how you Communicate.

This is part of the marketing mix - and consistency is the key.