Marketers: Professional mackers - Part 1

For those with some form of education on the subject, this makes absolute sense. The core of marketing is all about providing solutions that give the brand value, be it your client's brand, or your own brand.

On the other hand, if you were to ask an accountant the same question, you'll probably get an answer which would more or less be similar to this one: "It's just a waste of money...you cannot measure or in any way quantify the return on investment for any marketing activity that a company chooses to go into...if it were up to me, I'd fire all these so-called 'marketers', take this money and either save it, invest it or put it back into the company by fixing and/or buying things that it needs most".

How effective is it really?

Whether marketers agree with it or not, the accountant does have a point. We all know that marketing is immeasurable. Considering the fact that each year billions of rands are spent by companies in the name of marketing but they do not get to "see" the results of their efforts, this then begs the question: How effective is it really?

Now, go out and post the same question on Facebook, Twitter, etc, and you'll probably get an answer like, "It's advertising!" True or not, to them that is marketing. Marketing practitioners and scholars would go up in arms over such a reply since they know that advertising is just one of the principles of marketing, which include public relations, promotions, etc.

For a first year marketing student with hardly any knowledge on the subject, inferior understanding of how Maslow's hierarchy of needs fit into our daily lives, as well as how the AIDA approach is at the core of each marketing and/or advertising campaign, how do they answer and explain this to their grandmother in rural KZN?

"What is that?"

In my case, I got the following: "So boy, what exactly are you doing at school?" My reply: "Marketing, Gogo", only to get a blank stare and a, "What is that?"

Three different answers, from three different individuals with different backgrounds, that's marketing.

Marketing is hard to explain, doctors can tell you what they do, police officers, lawyers or actors, not marketers. So, what is marketing? In my personal view, I think the best description of marketing is, well, "macking", "hitting on a girl" or "ukushela", depending on what you call it where you come from.

Why do I say this? look at it like this: guys have to go to a girl they don't know, they have to communicate and package themselves in a way which is appealing and interesting and thus will be seen as offering value to not only the client (girl), but to both parties. See, human beings and animals at large have been marketing since the beginning of time. Think of how you got your current partner to go out with you if you're a guy, or why you went out with your current partner, if you're a girl.

Doing what we're good at

Yes, we in marketing do know that marketing involves much more than just the above-mentioned description but with marketing spend gradually declining, marketing teams being cut down without hesitation and accountants winning the war against the marketing departments, how do we translate that in the boardroom when we have to defend ourselves? How do we get creative, strategic matriculants that are eager to take up marketing and build on the capacity of this industry?

"Macking" might be the simplest way to explain it but if we are to be true marketers and really do what we're good at, "mack" in the boardroom, we could really see marketing spend reverse from a downward spiral to a gradual increase.