Some people use ‘marketing’ as a fancy word for ‘selling’. Of course selling is part of the marketing process but marketing is much more than that. Or they use the word for all kinds of promotion and advertising. Again, these are part of marketing but not the whole thing.

Actually, marketing is much bigger and broader than promotion, advertising and selling. At its most comprehensive, marketing is an umbrella term that includes an enterprise’s position amongst rivals in the marketplace, its competitive advantage and its selection of viable market segments it will serve.

Having selected particular market segments (and by implication, chosen positively not to deal with other market segments), marketing also includes communicating with customers in those selected markets.

This communication is a dialogue, not a monologue. In other words, marketing has to include listening to customers - or market research.

Only then do we proceed to crafting precise messages, tailored to the needs of different types of customers. Each of these messages is then delivered using the most appropriate medium in the circumstances.

These precise marketing messages are designed and delivered according to a technique called the ‘3Ms of Marketing’.

So, we must understand that marketing is much more than promotion and selling. It is a way of looking at the whole business in relation to markets. Using the full range of marketing tools, we can achieve success by manoeuvering effectively amongst competitors and serving our chosen customers effectively.

To achieve success in our enterprises we need to use all aspects of marketing: strategic marketing, competitor analysis, market positioning, market research and finally, delivering marketing messages.

These are the things that marketing means.

Let’s make the most of what marketing can offer us in order to develop our creative enterprises even more successfully.