Marketing Makes the World Go Round

The Best of All Ms
Paul Herbig

I often tell my classes that Marketing is the most important of all the business disciplines. Although I teach marketing and have lived and breathed (and if I am cut I bleed Marketing red) for twenty-five years, I am really not biased. So let me count the ways for you.

In business, if you look at an enterprise in its rawest form, there are only 3 things you can do: Manufacture a product, Market the product, or count the Money (3Ms). Before you invest in all the facilities necessary to make the product you had better determine if there is sufficient customers to make your operation profitable (marketing) and that the product you are indeed designing and plan to manufacture will meet those customers’ needs (marketing). Customers are needed to buy those products before you make them so they need be sold (marketed) before you can manufacture any products. Similarly, unless the products are sold (marketed) you will not have any money to count. Therefore of all the 3Ms, Marketing is primary and must take precedent over the other two if the company has any chance of surviving let alone thriving and making profits.

Still not convinced? What do you believe was the amount of world trade during 2002? In the U.S. alone, trade (imports and exports together)(products and/or services that crossed the border from or to the United States) is rapidly approaching $2 Trillion annually. That may sound (and is) large but many countries’ trade accounts for twice to three times the percentage of GDP that occurs in the U.S. It is safe to say the worldwide trade is trillions of Dollars. So what does this have to do with marketing. Before any product is traded across the border, a sale must have taken place between the two parties doing the trading. Once again, marketing. Without marketing taking place, trade would not occur and the world economic system would come to an abrupt halt (okay, perhaps I am exaggerating a slight bit here). By the same token, every dollar in the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the US (nearly $10 trillion) reflects an exchange that has taken place between a buyer and seller and a recognition that an act of marketing has occurred that hopefully betters both the buyer and seller.

Without marketing, new products would not be produced nor purchased by customers. Unless a customer knows about a new product and its features and benefits (Publicity), likelihood of purchase is small. A customer must then have his interest awoken for the product and understand how the product will satisfy needs and make life better (advertising). The product must be easily available to the customer wherever and whenever the customer wants the product (distribution). The product must be priced at a comparable point where it provides sufficient value for the dollar paid yet provides sufficient profit for the company to continue to manufacture the product. And finally, the customer must be assured the product will continue to work as promised (customer service), is aware of support activities to allow the customer to fully utilize the product, and has a migration path to upgrade or replace the product when it is obsolete or a newer product becomes available.

Experts estimate that marketing related jobs account for between one-quarter and one-third (25 to 33%) of all jobs in this country. Other estimates are that marketing costs as a percentage of every dollar in revenue received averages 50% (in some industry such as food processing this percentage can go as high as 70% while for most organizational pursuits it will be 30-35).


Truly, Marketing does make the world go round