Light 'Em Up: Which comes first, the product or the marketing?

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Which comes first, the product or the marketing?

Seth makes a point that marketing comes before the product. However, that is a non-sequiter argument. The traditional (dictionary) definition of marketing is the transfer of goods from seller to buyer. Marketing is the combination of attributes commonly defined as Price, Place, Promotion, and Product (the traditional marketing mix).

As the Product is a component of marketing, the order of what comes first is irrelevant. In the marketing matrix (adding Who, What, Why, When, and How to the 4 P's), you can work whichever way you wish. Define who you want to target, where you want to, and how much you want to make in margin. Then decide what product will fit those decisions.

If you want to check out a marketing matrix, look here: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/05/the_worlds_shor.html

Sent to you by mike via Google Reader:

Which comes first, the product or the marketing?

via Seth's Blog by Seth Godin on 2/4/09

Well, if you define marketing as advertising, then it's clear you need the product first (Captain Crunch being the only exception I can think of... they made the ads first.) This great clip from Mad Men brings the point home. If the Kodak guys hadn't invented the Carousel slide projector, Don Draper could never have pitched this ad.

But wait.

Marketing is not the same as advertising. Advertising is a tiny slice of what marketing is today, and in fact, it's pretty clear that the marketing has to come before the product, not after. As Jon points out, the Prius was developed after the marketing thinking was done. Jones Soda, too. In fact, just about every successful product or service is the result of smart marketing thinking first, followed by a great product that makes the marketing story come true.

If someone comes to you with a 'great' product that just needs some marketing, the game is probably already over.