Naviga Business Services: Marketing

In order to distinguish marketing from other related professional services, S.H. Simmons, author and humorist, relates this anecdote. "If a young man tells his date she's intelligent, looks lovely, and is a great conversationalist, he's saying the right things to the right person and that's marketing. If the young man tells his date how handsome, smart and successful he is -- that's advertising.

If someone else tells the young woman how handsome, smart and successful her date is -- that's public relations." You might think of marketing this way. If business is all about people and money and the art of persuading one to part from the other, then marketing is all about finding the right people to persuade.

Marketing is your strategy for allocating resources (time and money) in order to achieve your objectives (a fair profit for supplying a good product or service).