The Marketer

Even the Chartered Institute of Marketing seem to be able to print things in their magazine - The Marketer - which confuse the role of marketing.

The January 2008 issue has Theo Paphitis on the cover with the line "It's all about marketing". In the interview with him he is asked the question "Is marketing essential for a start-up?" The response is:
"It's all about marketing. Marketing's the most important part of any business [great so far!]. Even if you've got the best product in the world, if you can't tell people about it and convince them that they need it, they're not going to buy it. Plenty of average products become successful because of tremendous marketing."

Whilst I fully agree with the sentiment of what Theo is saying, he does seem to be saying that marketing is about communication, the best product in the world he mentions is also part of marketing - communicating about it to people being another. Two of the seven P's - Product and Promotion - are included here so why is one associated with marketing but the other not? OK, I'll give him some credit for Physical evidence and Process when he says about making lingerie special (through La Senza) when he says about ensuring it was nicely wrapped.

Further into the interview Theo says he is very marketing led and when times are hard he increases his marketing budget, a great philosophy which certainly seems to have made him wealthy. Unfortunately, it seems that he is only referring to the communications budget when he says this. As a saving grace, he does finish by saying that "the good marketer is innovative" - absolutely true, but across the whole range of the marketers toolbox please Theo!

Find out more about The Marketer journal via the Chartered Institute of Marketing website