A few weeks ago, I asked over 80 students at two universities, “what is marketing to you?”
I was looking for something more profound than what’s in textbooks– something more passion-driven and authentic.
Below is my best submission. It’s from Fashion Institute of Technology student Michele Reynoso.
This passage has provided me with the clarity I was looking for as I evolve Jay Mandel, Your Brand Coach.
“I can help you see marketing in a way you have never seen before so you can make your vision a viable business and deliver meaning for yourself and others.”
This is a work in progress and will likely evolve, but I am thrilled to put it out there and welcome your feedback!
Without further adieu, here’s Michele’ passage:
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Marketing, to me, has been a very structured term. I defined marketing as engaging with an audience to promote a product or service, generating sales throughout my education. As a student, I have accustomed myself to refer to these terms by their textbook definitions. I mention this because when presented with the question “what is marketing to you?” I knew what marketing was but not what it meant to me. I have had little to no deep understanding of marketing as it relates to my future.
My understanding of marketing began after completing the core value exercise. This is not to say that I went through a tremendous life-changing experience through that assignment, but it was an “aha” moment. For the first time in a classroom setting, I removed myself from the school structure and applied terms to my personal goals.
Marketing, to me, is not just about engaging with an audience to promote a product or service but instead engaging with an audience to solve a problem. Marketing should be purpose-driven: “what,” “how,” and “why” are you promoting this product or service. Marketing enables a business to connect with an audience much more effectively than traditionally promoting surface-level products through story-telling.
In this class, I hope to unlearn the traditional way of marketing and instead discover a new, more substance-based way of promoting myself and my brand. What is my purpose? How can I use my passions to solve a problem? Why do I believe in my brand?
