Insights Pulse

It’s not hard to notice that perceptions of the purpose and significance of certain professions that inherently contain commonly known terms, such as finance or law, are always experienced in a similar way by different audiences.

However, when we talk about marketing, that is not the case. It seems to me that no other activity has so many different interpretations and produces so many different associations: necessity vs. necessary evil, investment vs. expense, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Throughout my career, I have heard various opinions about the role of marketing in business countless times, and in many cases, I recognized a line from a cult movie: “If it were up to me, I’d run a bus through here.” So, I’ve been witness to this perception that a process can be approached based on incompetent views, groundless self-assuredness, and personal affinities, that one should offer resistance to anything that is not “here and now” and cannot yield instant results.

All those who would “run a bus through here”, without any awareness of the multidisciplinarity of the marketing role, believe that it’s all a matter of intuition and that this activity is merely “very nice and creative”, involving quick action based on the attitude: “I really like it – let’s go for it!”

Regardless of the trends in modern society, the development of innovations, technology, and the economy, many people are still mostly unaware of the fact that marketing operates in the long term and is one of the key factors in sustainable business. Those people ultimately expect the delivery of results that are solely based on increased sales, and that too in the shortest possible time, because otherwise, marketing is seen as a pure waste of money.

Furthermore, apart from this inept standpoint, marketing is often reduced to mere advertising and sometimes even more simplistically interpreted as quackery or selling snake oil. All these misconceptions should not be synonymous with marketing because a lack of understanding of its purpose and significance opens up potential problems in business, whether it’s large corporate systems or small and medium entrepreneurial ventures.

However, I have had the opportunity to encounter successful examples of entrepreneurship. Contrary to the context of said movie quote, visionaries with both feet on the ground know that targets cannot be reached by crossing untrodden bridges. They opt for the less-traveled path. That road is long, complex, and it asks for reassessment at every subsequent stop. Prejudices, incompetencies, obsolete work and thinking models get off the bus, while new knowledge, ideas, and insights get on board. Navigation is a must. As much as this journey involves an analytical and strategic approach, the visionaries know that taking this road does not guarantee one hundred percent success and the road is not always so well paved like in economically developed countries.

Entrepreneurs of this kind are aware that marketing is not something that follows everything else but rather precedes it. Even before investing, they understand the complexity, scope, and the essence of creating a business, and they place marketing at the forefront in the very infancy of the business model.

As a result, even before taking the driver’s seat, these people tend to examine their initial entrepreneurial idea from different angles, consider key resources for its realization, and estimate the time needed for a return on investment. This allows them to create a starting point for developing a marketing strategy, and then they further the business by innovation through products, distribution, pricing, promotion, people, processes, etc.

Marketing-oriented entrepreneurs continue on the path of constantly asking questions:
Who needs this? What is the purpose of this? What need does it satisfy? Is it adequately priced? How to present it and raise awareness of its value?

As the journey goes on and traffic gets more and more dynamic, backed up by experience and knowledge, they adjust their driving style for the new road conditions. They never forget to make a pit stop to refuel, have their tires changed, and update the navigation device, all without leaving the vehicle.

Vision, knowledge, experience, and perseverance can turn every entrepreneurial venture into an endless journey of success, inspiration, ideas, creativity, and innovation.

Perhaps the secret of those who have embraced marketing as their entrepreneurial philosophy lies in one simple, commonsensical approach to life: embracing the uncertain.

When I say “marketing”, I firmly believe that, above all, it is necessary to laud its role and importance, all the while emphasizing the fact that there is an equality sign between marketing and creating a business. I believe that, as a profession, it is our duty to motivate the entire business community to strive for a transformation of mindset, move towards changing business models, and actively develop in line with global trends.

Written by: Bojana Rudović
Published by: BIZLife magazine
Article taken from the BIZLife website