The Marketing Plaza

Is Marketing for Dummies?  I think not even though there is a book by that name.  Tom  Marin, A Reed Business writer for Converting Magazine, started the conversation and it got me thinking.  Marketing is for smart people who understand the need to reach out to customers, understand the market and provide the right mix of business services to be warrant market attention.

I’m not embarrassed to admit that I love “for Dummies” books and have several in my library including one on marketing. Friends made fun of me when I bought the marketing title some time back, but I purchased it for a few reasons:

1. I wanted to see what the Dummies series felt was required in a basic marketing text. I’m sorry to say that it still talks about the 5Ps of marketing — Product, Price, Place, Promotion and People — even though these are no longer valid and generally muddy the marketing discussion into an academic exercise.  Modern marketing talks more about 3 Ps and 5 C’s (but that’s another post entirely).

2. I believe marketing basics remain the same even though we’re in a new Internet world. The basics?  I have to repeat my sentence above — understand the need to reach out to customers, understand the market and provide the right mix of business services to be warrant market attention.

3. There are more than one Marketing for Dummies books including one on Small Business Marketing. Not surprisingly, it is more practical than the more generic Marketing text.  Chapters are devoted to why marketing and sales are not synonymous and the dollar and staffing differences inherent in small business marketing.

4. No one, particularly field experts, should ever think they “know it all.”  Hopefully, an expert is the first to realize that a field is always changing. There’s always something new to learn. When I bought the Dummies book I wanted to check myself.  Was there something in the book I needed to brush up on?  I’m happy to report that the book was very basic and didn’t really have anything of value in it for me — but if you’re a business person and not a marketing person, I can still recommend it.  It’s a great way to get started, and in marketing — it’s important to get started rather than sit still.

Nevertheless, as a marketing person, there is much to learn from the Dummies books. In a nutshell:

A. Branding. When you see a black and yellow cover you know you’re getting a Dummies book.

B. Branding. When you get  Dummies book you know what to expect — basic information to get you started down a specific task be it knitting, web site development, or even writing a marketing plan.

C. Branding. When you fork over your $25 +/- on the cover price, you know you’ll get help in simple English that won’t talk down to you.  You may need professional help over and above the book, but the book gives you the lingo to start to talk to the pros with confidence. It’s a basic roadmap to get you in gear down your latest road of engagement.

Here’s an idea to consider: What if you constructed your business as a business for Dummies?

• How would you build customer confidence?
• What could you do to make customers feel comfortable working with you when they are still low on the learning curve?

That’s smart marketing!

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