Joshua Saunders

Often the words advertising and marketing are used almost interchangeabley.  While the two functions are related, they are almost complete opposites.

The job of advertising is to sell a solution to a problem.  Advertising primarily creates product awareness, sometimes product knowledge, less often product preference, and more rarely, product purchase.  Advertising can’t close a sale alone.  Moreover, consumers ignore more ads.  Ads (except for about half of the ones during the superbowl) are not creative.  How many car commercials have you seen?  Thousands?  Every car commercial includes a car driving super fast through winding mountains with no other cars on the road.  Well, I live in Chicago, there are no mountains and I am constantly stuck in traffic.  Show me a car commercial with a car not moving stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Philip Kotler, the marketing genius, suggests asking the following question before using advertising:
Would advertising create more satisfied clients than if our company spent the same money on making a better product, improving customer service, or creating stronger brand experiences?

Always remember, the better the product, the less that has to be spent on advertising, because the best advertising will be done by your customers.

In contrast, marketing is essential to any company.  You begin advertising after you have a product.    Marketing is the prep work to determine what problems exist and where, how you are going to find a solution and what segments of people need this solution.  Marketing is much more than finding creative ways to sell your products.  Marketing is the ability to generate customer value.  The purpose of marketing is to understand your market segment so well that selling isn’t necessary.  Kotler’s definition goes something like this, “Marketing management is the art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping, and growing customers through creating, communicating, and delivering superior customer service.”

Marketing is quick to learn and takes a lifetime to master.  But to think that marketing is not essential and ignore it’s importance is like parking your business on train tracks (it’s only a metter of time).  Long-term marketing strategy is the foundation of any successful business.

A new site has launched this weekend called First 30 Days.  The website is intended to provide self-help advice and information for people going through life changes.  For instance, the site will help you get through the first 30 days of becoming pregnant, a breakup, taking a new job, starting a business, etc…

The site is founded by Ariane de Bonvoisin, a former corporate strategist at Bertelsmann, Sony, and Time Warner.  Seed funding was provided by former Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons and a $5 million series A just closed with Parsons, Hearts Corporation and the New York City Investment Fund.

What’s appealing to me is that the site integrates the massive self-help industry in a web 2.0 atmosphere.  The site plans on launching two viral widgets, one a facebook app which provides stats on how many people are going through a similiar situation as you and the other is a widget that delivers inspirational advice to people’s personal sites.

Overall, I think the potential is huge.  One thing I thought was funny (and shown on TechCrunch) was two lists the site has posted.  One of the top five lists is for Switching to a Mac and the other is for Improving Your Sex Life.  Can you guess which one is which?