What is marketing?

When I'm delivering my training courses on marketing for small businesses and start ups across Norfolk, we usually start with a fairly simple question - "What is marketing?" I ask everyone to jot some ideas down to try and get a picture of the level of knowledge in the room (and also to give my voice a break from talking all day!) This exercise is also hugely valuable to get people "into the groove" and "thinking marketing". I truly believe that marketing is so much more than just a process like accounting or administration, its a whole way of thinking. Those that srtuggle with the concept will often start by putting advertising down on the blank sheet of paper but marketing is so much more than simply advertising.

Some of the most successful small businesses and start ups are those which think marketing all of the time. By this I mean that they are open-minded to creative ideas - anything from giving some products away to a charity to forming alliances for referrals or collaborating to host an event. So here are a few of the more unusual things that some of my training course delegates think are marketing that you might not have thought of:

1. Giving away free samples of your product - this could be at an event, in the street or even mounted onto the front of a magazine
2. Holding an open day
3. Writing an article in a magazine
4. Writing a blog or using other social media
5. Setting up a customer loyalty scheme - use a simple business card to collect stamps and give loyal customers a free drink etc on their 6th visit.
6. Clever packaging and point of sale (POS) - a dull product can look totally different in a clever box or display stand
7. Incentive schemes - encourage word of mouth from existing customers by rewarding them for referring a friend to you
8. Giving away branded promotional gifts such as pens, stickers or carrier bags

Can anyone suggest any other smart marketing ideas?

What on earth is ambush marketing?

It's almost as (un)popular as the vuvuzela and its certainly got the media talking: mission accomplished! Why has a couple of dozen pretty girls in orange mini-dresses caused such an almighty stir? As the official beer of the 2010 World Cup, you can't really blame Budweiser bosses for being a little put out that the efforts of the Bavaria Brewery to "highjack" publicity for their mini-dress stunt have proved so effective when they have spent millions on an official sponsorship deal.

Ambush marketing in its broadest sense means piggybacking a brand onto the back of an event for which the brand is not an official sponsor. As in this example, it can be more effective than official sponsorship or it can completely backfire. Some would argue that the fact some of the minidress-clad girls ended up in front of a South African court is negative for the brand but in many respects it just gets more column inches for the story.

Sports events seem to be a magnet for this type of campaign - I experienced ambush marketing at first hand when I visited Wimbledon Tennis Championships a few years ago. Tabloid newspaper The Sun had printed a few thousand flags of St George (complete with red and white Sun logo) onto A4 card and were handing them out with bottles of sun cream to the assembled Henman fans in the Wimbledon queue. On entry to the All England Club we thought our bags were being searched for bombs - in fact the stringent security staff were confiscating these promotional flags along with almost anything else with a logo on it.

The London Olympics will no doubt bring this type of marketing to our attention again - I suppose my challenge as a marketing person is to come up with a superbly creative way to get my clients' brands in front of this global audience without the hefty sponsorship deal. Better get my head down for the next two years to come up with some ideas...

As reported in many places, but you can read more from the BBC on the subject of Ambush Marketing here

Creating a social media personality

I have been lucky enough in the last week to deliver two workshops on social media and to share the potential of online networking with some interested individuals. The great thing about training and teaching is that I always find myself learning something at the same time as sharing my knowledge with others. One of the key comments raised in one workshop was the importance of integrating all aspects of social media activity into a streamlined strategy with blogging at the core. As I work my way through the maze of social networking opportunities I can really start to see the potential benefits of a holistic approach, although I am not yet tempted to go as far as "cheating" by using automatic updates as i still feel the individuality of the posts is crucial. One of the key values of social media is the importance of personality, which must show through in both individuals and brands. This also extends to adding an element of emotion to posts which makes them far more interesting to the reader.

Kirstie Allsopp @KirstieMAllsopp (posh presenter of Location, Location, Location) is an astute example of a social media-savvy celeb. One of her tweets which stayed in my mind when asked for a twitter tip was simply FFF - follow fun folk. She mixes home life and work life in her posts to achieve a healthy balance of personality and emotion with the serious promotion of her new tv series. When recently appointed as a celeb ambassador for the Keep Britain Tidy campaign, organisers credited the fact she made a personal call to express her keen interest in the role as a key factor in their choice. Again the real personality is shining through.

The challenge for small businesses is to identify and develop this type of appealing, almost human personality for their brand and share it with the world.