Marketing Is Hard

Researcher and Marketer Kevin Schofield responds to a post by Robert Scoble, and explains how hard it is to do marketing right.

I like the way Kevin describes the perceptions some people have about marketing. I give engineers who understand marketing, like Kevin and Eric Sink, a lot of credit--they have a way of getting at the balance of science and art. I personally think that's one of the things that makes Bill Gates so successful--he is able to see both perspectives clearly.

In its simplest form, marketing is about a few things: communication, planning and execution. You need to listen to customers, pass on what you learn to engineering, then communicate back to customers that you have something they need or want. How you communicate requires detailed planning and often intricate execution.

Great marketing takes a combination of talent, knowledge, and skill. I've seen marketers who have lots of talent, but limited knowledge or skill--they grow their careers quickly, and pick up knowledge and skill by trying different things. And I've seen marketers with extensive knowledge, some skill, but limited talent--they're usually the most dangerous, relying on things that have been done before, or things they learned in school, without tempering them with customer insight, strategic thinking, or creativity.

Great marketers make it look easy. And bad marketers reinforce the perception that no thought is required. Just like anything else, simplicity and elegance are often very, very difficult to achieve.

Kevin outlines the major roles of marketing. Some great conversation ensues in the comments, getting to the heart of some of the misconceptions--and realities--of marketing.

"Marketing is super hard too. Very few people understand it. Those who don't, almost always fail. Even a lot of the people who do, still fail at it.

Marketing is a lot of inter-related things. Including:

1. Product planning -- taking customer input and market analysis, and coming up with a plan for a target market segment and what the product should be (in partnership with the product design team) so that it fulfills the customer's need and they want to buy it.

2. Positioning -- how do you present a product in a way that makes it most appealing to the target market and sufficiently differentiated from the competitors' products. Often this includes "branding:" developing a unique identity and association with positive qualities that are part of your positioning, and verbal and visual elements that will be recognized as representing that brand.

3. "Go-to-market" plans -- part of me cringes just typing in that term. This is a marketing buzzword for everything you need to do to be ready to launch your product. Some big things, like setting pricing, and a zillion little things fall into here. I have never seen a comprehensive list of what is in a "go-to-market" plan, and I think that's intentional because if it's vague it serves the interests of those responsible for delivering it.

4. Advertising. Using media to raise awareness of your product, and calling potential customers to action to buy it. An inherent part of this is understanding how to match potential advertising forms with your target audience, your brand, and your call to action for them to buy.

5. PR. Officially it's "public relations" though for many folks it could jsut as well be "press relations" because that's where they (unwisely) spend much of their time, money and effort. This is about how you have conversations with customers, press, and anyone else who is interested in your product. For the people who aren't good at this, it means "professional lying." For the people who are good, it means "telling the truth in a compelling way that's relevant to your audience." Often technology evangelism is a form of PR."