Peter Drucker said: “Business has only two key functions: Innovation and Marketing.“
What is Marketing? All businesses claim to do marketing. The poem below entitled “You, amplified” succinctly tells us what marketing is not, and really what marketing is. Enjoy!
You, Amplified
Marketing
is not yelling.
It is not even selling.
It is not bears
dancing around a cereal box
or yellow highlighter pixels
on top of BUY ME NOW pixels
or naked juggling smash-cut ladies on fiery unicycles.
It is not taglines or jingles,
one-sheets or tri-folds,
slide decks
special offers
or branding branding branding.
Marketing
is offering.
It is talking to people
with words
and sounds
and gestures
and pictures
specially chosen
so that the people who need to hear
what you have to share
can
and clearly.
Marketing
is the truth of you,
translated
into the language of them:
in the room
on the page
over the air.
It is you
giving of yourself
to the people
who are ready to receive.
And that thing you say
that hand you shake
that ad
that tag
that special bonus extra
is really you, amplified.
Loud enough so they can hear
soft enough so they can hear themselves think
and feel themselves feeling
and find themselves connecting
with you.
It is a thing
of poetry
not a practice
to abuse.
Express yourself
with love
and no fear
and you will find yourself
surrounded by the best
the world has to offer:
“them.”
Your “them.”
Drawn to you
for what they need
and not what you are trying to make them want.
You, amplified,
do this.
At just the right level
in just the right time
with truth
and honor
and love
and fun
and heat
and light
and fart jokes,
depending.