Main Idea
Who in your organization is in charge of marketing? What is marketing? Do you outsource this? Do you do it cheap in house? Or can it be a philosophy of business and a unifying theme for your employees to follow?
Expansion of Idea
Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association 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. The term developed from the original meaning which referred literally to going to market, as in shopping, or going to a market to sell goods or services. (from Wikipedia)
Most people view marketing as something that the marketing department or sales department do. And yes, they may be the point person in the marketing campaign. However, marketing needs to be something that almost every job in an organization does on a daily basis. How many times have you been cut off by someone in traffic and you can tell by the emblem on their car what church they belong to? That is marketing. Or you have a problem with a bill and you call customer service. That is marketing. You walk in a restaurant and they have expensive prices on the menu and cheap tables and paper placemats. That is marketing. You tell a customer that you will call back and you do, 4 weeks later. That is marketing. You answer the phone on the 15th ring. That is marketing.
Suggested Areas to Start
Define marketing in your company.
Define how you fit into the marketing plan.
Identify one idea to improve your organization’s marketing
Lead your team to embrace this idea.
Brainstorm how to implement the idea.
Put it in practice.