The Truth About Marketing – from the inside

Each week, we give you an insight into the facts about marketing and try to unravel the realities from the tangled web of jargon, sales speak and general bull that marketing has been wrapped up in for so long!

2. Marketing doesn’t work!

Yes it does!
Marketing in general and strategic marketing, in particular, will not reap results immediately. Unless you are running a gob-smacking promotion that is so irresistible, people are falling over themselves to get it.
In most cases, marketing is a ‘slow burn’ methodology. It is much better to slowly trickle brand awareness into the market than it is to deluge it with a massive blast of ice cold promotion.
There is a truckload of reputable marketing research that tells us people will purchase from brands they know and trust. The job of a marketer is to instil that familiarity and trust without the market even realising it!
As a prime example, Coca Cola are past masters at doing this. They don’t really bombard us with TV and radio advertising most of the time, but their branding is everywhere. It has worked its way into our subconscious.
In fact, they have done such a good job, that they literally make money from selling the rights to use their brand. This is genius! Other businesses actually pay Coca Cola to use the logo on the products they make and at the same time do the marketing for them.
We have worked in licensing in the past and branded everything from biscuit barrels and bed linen to vending machines to awnings – all paid for by the manufacturers of those products – not by the licensor.
Put it to the test. Look out for how many times you can spot that familiar red and white logo (or even just the swirl). You’ll be surprised. Rest assured, Coca Cola haven’t paid for their logo to appear on most of the places you see it; quite the contrary, they have been paid.
So, yes, marketing does work – but sometimes in mysterious ways!