Business is Marketing / Marketing is Business

David Koopmans replied to a comment I made in response to his recent post Advertising agencies are not the real problem that unless I define what I meant by "Marketing" and "Brand" he wasn't sure that people would understand my comment. Brand can wait for another day, but as the title suggests my view is: Business is Marketing and Marketing is Business.

To be in business is to go to market, put up a table, present your wares and engage with those willing to pay for whatever it is your business wants to exchange for cash. By being in business you are "Marketing".

Business is Marketing.

Marketing is Business because everything you do as a business contributes to how your business is perceived.

Everything.

If you do not have a web site, do not Advertise, do not have any promotional literature, and sell only by peer to peer recommendation to the very tiny group of individuals engaged in very obscure field of scientific research who have a need for your service... you are marketing your business. It doesn’t take a multi million dollar ad campaign to qualify.

Marketing is business.

Severn Delta has not printed a single page of self promoting literature, our web site remains a work in progress, and we do not even have a credentials presentation for use in opening meetings with new clients. We have never Advertised. But we are engaged in marketing the business everyday in everything we do. We pick our fights, do not openly invite new business enquiries, and punch above our weight. We play to win and this attitude says more about us than a shiny brochure.

But it is deliberate Marketing nonetheless.