It’s often easier to express complex or difficult to qualify concepts by describing them as what they are not.
This is especially true when it comes to a hard to grasp concept like Marketing – which I defined in my last post (What is Marketing) as a quest to master the “intangibles,” – because marketing’s ubiquity is often confused as being synonymous with certain practices.
Here are some of the practices most commonly misconstrued as being marketing, i.e.  What Market is Not…
Advertising – In the Mad Men era of advertising, the so-called “Golden Age of Advertising,” Marketing was advertising. If you wanted to grow your business and promote your products or services, you advertised. The platforms available were few – display adverting, print publications, radio and TV – and the price of admission was high. But if you were able to feature you company’s product or service in one of those platforms, success was guaranteed (even with a mediocre product or services).
Promotions – Promoting is the act of creating events, usually “advertised into existence,” as a vehicle to promote a business. These events can be anything from physical gatherings or parties to contests to telethons and donorship drives or what have you.
PR (Public Relations) – Most commonly associated with big businesses who’ve done wrong and bad boy (and bad girl) actors trying to repair their tarnished reputations, PR is all about positive spin. PR boils down to establishing a positive agenda – contributing to charities and charity events, doing “good works” in the public domain and generally fashioning a laundry list of everything “great” about you – and blanketing the media with as much high profile coverage of said agenda as possible.
Now, I’ve set you up a bit here with some misdirection, because the truth is Advertising, Promotions and PR are all technically components of capital “M” marketing.
There is, however, a distinct difference between being “a component of” and being “the same thing as.” Far too many businesses confuse these individual components as being synonymous with marketing. This is huge mistake, especially today, because none of these components individually have the power to ensure your business’s success. And even worse, because of the high costs involved, they can lead to your business’s downfall.
The Advertising Myth (Mad Men is just a TV show)
In this day and age, only huge brands and multinational corporations can afford to nurture and grow their business strictly based on advertising.
When it comes to the small business arena, however, the deck is stacked against you…

• Sure, if you’ve got mega bucks backing you up, you can certainly take a shot at “advertising a business into existence” like watering a dusty plot into green grass lawn  in the high desert…it might work, in the short term.
• As already mentioned above, the cost of admission is enormous and requires an ongoing dedicated commitment.
• The variety and shear number of platforms and channels available have exploded. TV has proliferated from three networks to 1,001 channels. (assuming you could afford it, which you can’t, TVland is an untargeted mess of crap shoot)
• Radio has been fractured by strict format based programming, Satellite radio’s emergence and the ability to play iPods and other digital media in your car (and anywhere else for that matter) with ease. (and here again, assuming you could afford it, which you can’t, radio is also an untargeted mess of crap shoot)
• Print publication circulation is at all-time low, and seemingly limping toward a slow, anguished death of complete starvation. (and the falling numbers, among advertisers and readers alike, are driving ad rates even higher)
• Display advertising is almost completely untargeted and very expensive (especially for prime real estate). Unless you have roadside business catering to motorists, you’re presenting your business as needle in a haystack your potential customers are highly unlike to find.

In short: traditional advertising is largely untargeted (akin to pissing in the wind), prohibitively expensive (far beyond what any small business can afford on consistent basis), and the provides monumentally underperformed results (big money, for no honey).
Seduced by Promotions
Sure, promotions are great: sponsored parties, gatherings, outings and other events, contests, and tradeshows all hold the potential to attract new customers. And heck, they’re a lot of FUN. But costs are high and the logistical effort involved is tremendous, while the ROI (Return on Investment) is difficult is to measure and generally underwhelming: “We spent “x” (in terms of time and money) and we gained “y” number of prospects…so what’s the payoff?”
The greatest danger of promotions, however, is the seduction factor. All too many businesses are seduced by the glitz and allure of promotions into treating marketing as an “event,” instead of what it really should be: “a habit.” Grinding it out day-to-day and staying on top of the intangibles builds effective marketing. Not a special contest, party or tradeshow appearance.
PR Power Lunch
A well organized, accurately targeted PR campaign holds tons of potential to yield titanic results. Unfortunately, it costs big bucks.
“Potential” and “big bucks” completely excludes small businesses from the PR game (take your ball and go home). Even if you could spend big bucks (which you can’t), you certainly don’t waste it on “potential.” When money’s tight, big bucks are only spent on a sure thing.
PR is all about who you know, not what your business does. Publicists and PR firms make their bones funneling their client’s “messaging” into the “mouths” of the “right” media contacts. All for a very hefty fee. (hey, somebodies got to spring for all those free Power Lunches)
It’s possible to make inroads with local publications and media outlets for coverage in local news as a point of interest in your community, but that’s a topic for another day. The “get a story in a magazine, on feature on the TV news or a segment on Good Morning America” version of PR is strictly the domain of big businesses with deep pockets.

What is (or is not) Marketing for Your Small Business?

Now that you know what marketing is not, maybe you’ve discovered a few holes in your marketing program. Perhaps it’s time to get some help in developing an effective marketing strategy to grow your business, expand your reach and put more cash in your coffers, without drowning your operating in a flood of red ink.
Effective marketing strategies are Marketing Expertise’s specialty – get in touch TODAY and send your business soaring to new heights!
Contact: Ryan Anys | ryananys@designexpertise.net | 310.466.7893