Marketing for Beginners

Many business owners equate marketing with distributing 5,000 flyers. However, marketing involves a series of components, each with a specific goal and target market. While these components can function independently, a complete chain ensures a successful marketing campaign. Through my intensive marketing research, I discovered a straightforward way to

describe the marketing chain and its components:

Advertising: If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying, "Circus coming to the Fairground Saturday," that’s advertising.

Promotion: If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion.

Publicity: If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed, that’s publicity.

Public Relations: If you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations.

Sales: If the town’s citizens attend the circus, explore the entertainment booths, learn about the fun they'll have, get their questions answered, and ultimately spend money at the circus, that’s sales.

Marketing: If you planned the whole thing, that’s marketing!

To ensure your business thrives, make marketing a core component of your strategy.

Ref.: ©Entrepreneur Magazine, South Africa – Smart Business Solutions (Pty) Ltd.

This article was compiled for CABA by Joh-Mari Van Heerden, owner of “Die Bloublad”. Contact her for the placement of an advert in this directory here.