Marketing is your Business

What is your business? Please think about that for a good five minutes. Don’t let yourself get distracted.

All of these describe the experience of your business or are components of them. Your business is the process and system of acquiring customers and how you serve, retain, and grow with them. This is marketing. It used to be called “line” work (to borrow an old military term. Anything outside of those processes is “staff” or overhead and should be managed carefully. Put directly, marketing is your business. That resounding sound was all of the product people throwing their laptops and unsubscribing. But it’s true today, and it’s been true for a long time: distribution > product.

If you don’t believe me, look to Edison. Was he the prolific creator of inventions? Or did he have a marketing machine to capitalize on (patent), distribution, and technology discovery? His contemporary (Tesla) was an equally prolific inventor but has faded (until recently) from the public mind. There’s a reason it’s called “line” work, not sandwiches. The product is achieved by the process of the line, curated with visuals and smells to pull you into the store and facilitated by a smiling server/builder who both enables the sale and creates the product. Sometimes, we get too creative in defining our business and what’s important. Everyone wants a sandwich, which they buy from your business. Nothing is more important than your process. And marketing enables the entire process, connecting user to production. -Grady