I now understand all the hype about Marketing!
I used to think marketing was simple. Just a way to tell your customers what you’re saying. I never knew it was a skill that comprised so many components. I was a science major and honestly, I always thought marketing was the fun stuff. The cherry on top of the ice cream or the potatoes on top of the meat. I used to joke that my friends in marketing were just chilling while I was the one really working hard.
This course taught me that I was completely wrong.
No matter how great a product you have, it’s not complete without marketing. Marketing is the tool that actualizes the product. For something to be sitting in the factory warehouse with no way of entering the market is totally meaningless. It’s a full science in order to understand a customer, how they think, and what they want. It’s actually more complicated than a typical science because it’s not black and white. It’s hard to categorize emotions and thoughts in order to make decisions based on them.
Although I can now appreciate and understand the value of marketing in relation to every product and idea I do feel that it’s not my strong suit, to say the least. Why you may ask? Here’s just a couple of reasons.
1) My brain sees numbers and black and white facts not so much abstract marketing principles. It’s easier for me to understand a math equation that never changes and has a clear right and wrong than a target market whose compromised of hundreds of different mindsets.
2) Keeping up with the trends: marketers have to be in the loop all the time. They need to be holding in all things social media and social trends that come and go at lightning speed. I’m not so great at this and would much rather keep to my own interests rather than following those of the rest of the world.
3) Idea generation: creating my marketing campaign for class this semester was super difficult for me. I don’t have the most creative mind when it comes to this stuff and it took me a few hours to come up with something pretty simple.
I think the easiest part of marketing for me will be measuring the success of the campaign. This brings me back to comfortable territory where I can use a formula or something similar to measure something. Yay measuring! Whether it’s the amount of carbon dioxide or Instagram likes this brings me back to my comfort zone.
Overall this course has definitely caused me to step out of what I consider my expertise and to explore a world that I never knew really existed. I’ll take these skills with me for the rest of my career and personal life as well in order to communicate products and ideas with the world.
