What is the Goal of Marketing?

The goal of ‘Marketing’ is very misunderstood. Many think it’s sales, while others think that marketing is advertising or branding. Some even think that marketing is waste of time, money and resources.   

Well it’s none of the above – although there is a small component of advertising and branding. 

The Navigation System

Let me put it this way, if the company, organization or business was an airplane, then operations would be the plane itself (systems, processes, HR, finance, engineering, manufacturing, …), sales would be the pilot, and marketing would be the navigation system. 

Nothing happens without a sale, and sales would have nothing to sell if not for operations.  However, if they didn’t have a navigation system, the airplane would fly aimlessly around ‘hoping’ to arrive somewhere (i.e., land a client). 

Marketing’s Goal

What then is the goal of marketing?  And… what is the most important function of marketing?  The true function of marketing is not any ‘one thing’ that I can point out.  The real value of marketing is in it charting the direction for the business.  That means, marketing is responsible for: 

1. Understanding what a customer looks like, where they can be found and what is important to them
2. Knowing how to position the business in order to capture the most value for shareholders 
3. Determining what the strategic distinctive advantages of the business are, compared to those of competitors 
4. Deciding what products and/or services will be made available 
5. Forecasting the demand for products and/or services 
6. Setting the price that will be charged for products and/or services 
7. Stipulating what geographic markets the business will serve
8. Considering how to communicate to prospects and customers in a world that is noisy and complicated
9. Discovering how the business will serve and retain customers
10. Clarifying what people resources and partners and/or alliances will be needed
11. Learning what replicable processes need to be developed in order to deliver to customers on a consistent basis
12. Establishing how the business will know that it is all working – in other words, how will the organization measure every aspect of the customer journey

As you can see, the goal of marketing is WAY more than advertising, sales or branding.  It is the guiding GPS that helps the business find and land more business. 

Robert Murray is a Vancouver, BC based Business Strategy Consultant, #1 Best Selling Author, International Keynote Speaker, and TEC Top Speaker of the Year for 2018. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, follow Robert on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

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