I was deep in the brand and marketing strategy rabbit hole for the last 5 years. Reading every book and article, taking every course, just to understand why some companies turn into beloved brands and why some seem to piss people off no matter how hard they try. Or even worse, stay irrelevant.

It was not until I co-founded a company that's not an agency but a business with products, a warehouse, and most importantly people in it that I learned the most about branding. I completely changed the way I run my workshops. I even changed the format from an agency to a consulting service, and I always start the very first meeting with a new client with this question:

What do you think is marketing?
(I don't start with branding — branding's brand problem is a whole thing for another time.) I heard the most thought-provoking answer a few weeks ago. I even wrote it down:

"It's sales and advertising. Two things I really hate doing."

It made me think. Those are the two things that I hate doing too. How come someone just hired me to take care of this for them?

That's when I realized. My way of marketing isn't about sales — there are the few out there who are brilliant and I truly envy them — or advertising — although I'm still a sucker for a fun commercial or clever campaign, I hate anything pushy. Neither of those things were there for me when I wanted to spread the word about our company. So what did we have? Limited resources, extreme amounts of creativity, a deep knowledge in branding, and a goal to find our friends out there and make them happy with what makes us happy.

So simple. So non-marketingy. Just the basics.

So here is the first challenge/prompt/idea (we'll find the right words as we go) for you in this mini course about brand and marketing strategy:

What do you think marketing is?
Be super honest! Write down the good, the bad, the ugly.

What do you have that you could utilize just like we did if you don't have sales skills or an endless budget to spend on ads?

If you want, you can always answer these questions by replying to the email, or write to me. I'm always happy to hear from you.

Here's a quote for provoking your thoughts about marketing in a more fun and approachable way:

“If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying “Circus Coming to the Showground Saturday,” that’s advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed and the local newspaper writes a story about it, that’s publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations. If the town’s citizens go to the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they’ll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and, ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that’s sales. And if you planned the whole thing, that’s marketing. Yup, it’s as simple as that—marketing is the strategy you use for getting your ideal target market to know you, like you and trust you enough to become a customer. All the stuff you usually associate with marketing are tactics.” - The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib

If you'd like to read a whole book exploring "What is marketing?", here's an excellent one that might surprise you and change your entire perception of the sleazy, persuasive marketer stereotype:

This Is Marketing by Seth Godin

No.1 - Back to Basics