Marketing matters in how you position your product for customers to spend money (generating revenue for you to keep your business running and hopefully growing). If you don't do the appropriate marketing, you can never be sure you have put the product in the right "position", meaning you did not find the customer need that you can fill...and you can't "position" your product to fill it.
The idea of "invent and they will come" has been dead in most cases for a long time. The innovation levels are changing in many markets, leading companies to find new ways to reach customers. Thais is where marketing comes in. It is that difference maker. So why marketing? In part, marketing is helping companies act in a new media world. Where a tradeshow was the place to show your next big thing, it is now a requirement to be more immediate with web product launches, webinars and social media to name only a few new media channels that are replacing the traditional media. Marketing is also responsible for educating the customer to meet the needs they now have. The bar has been raised with the greater availability of information.
Where does this leave you then? Marketing is a basic requirement, and has been for several decades. If you were not aware of it, take a look at some of the most successful companies that are examples of marketing excellence: Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Mary Kate and Ashley Olson (Yes, those girls are brilliant marketers), Hannah Montana or her alter ego -brilliant, Micheal Jackson, etc... The companies that understand marketing have a distinct advantage. It is no guarantee of course that good marketing will make a company successful, but I do feel strongly that a company cannot be truly successful without good marketing of some sort.
What are your thoughts?
