What if I asked 100 different college marketing students to define the word “marketing?” I’m pretty sure we’d get 100 different answers, or we might get the top Google answer a bunch of times.

The following definition was approved by the American Marketing Association Board of Directors: Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large. (Approved October 2007)

The all-inclusive American Marketing Association definition seems like a lot to remember.

I like to think of myself as a simplifier and came up with my own definition: Marketing is communicating brand messages.

You may or may not agree with my definition. That’s not really the point. The point is that marketing a product or service is done in a whole bunch of different ways. In the past century, most of the attention was placed on mass marketing. Today, social marketing ideas are growing faster than people can keep track of.

There are so many different tactics to deliver brand messages to our customers and prospects. And yet, when was the last time you communicated your brand message(s) to your internal target group – the employees of the company you work for? Employees are easy to forget about. It’s also easy to assume that they all know the brand message(s) already.

Once I was in a marketing committee meeting for a bank and presented a great idea designed to bring people into the bank itself. Everyone on the committee agreed that it was a great idea, and I thought it was sold. Suddenly, a bank employee said “what are we going to do with all of those people if they come into the bank?” Needless to say, the president of the bank (who was also in the meeting) did not approve the campaign. In fact, he stopped all external marketing and moved the money to training. The bank president was part right: his staff definitely needed extra training. On the other hand, I would suggest that instead of training at the expense of external marketing, that both internal and external audiences should be consistently addressed in every company’s annual marketing plan.

Here is an exercise I encourage you to try with your company. Send out a survey and ask every employee to answer one question: Why does this company exist (beyond making money)? To add to the challenge, explain that they can only use 25 words or less. My guess is that you will have as many different answers as you have employees.

I encourage you to stop thinking of marketing as something that only happens outside your business. The next strategic marketing plan you develop needs to include an internal marketing plan as well. Then, when your outside plan is successful – and prospects start coming to your business – your employees know exactly what brand message you are trying to communicate.

It is important that we always ask the following questions in any brand communication:
1.      Who is the target group we are trying to reach?
2.      What do we want the target group to think that will cause them to take action?
3.      What do we need to say that will influence their attitude?

I learned a memorable target group lesson first-hand from my two college age sons when I attended We Fest – a huge music festival in Minnesota – in 2007. (They took me along because I bought the tickets and I love country music.) If you’ve never been to We Fest, it is a three-day outdoor concert in Detroit Lakes and 83,000 fans attended in 2007. Not bad for a community of 8,141 people.

The first day I was watching the concert from my comfy lawn chair and enjoying the great country music and a college-age woman showed up to sit two rows in front of me. She was clearly trying to get someone’s attention. She wore a fluorescent pink hat and short shorts with a bikini top. She stood up for most of the concert, beer in hand, dancing (I think) and making a lot of noise. She succeeded in getting my attention and annoying me as she blocked my view.

The next day she was back again – in the same outfit doing the same moves and now was causing me serious discomfort. I leaned over to my two sons and said “what’s with that gal?” They listened to my concerns and instead of empathizing with me, replied “Dad, you are not her target group.” Like a blow to the head with a two-by-four, my two sons put me in my place with language I understood.

I have told that story a number of times in client meetings because sometimes we all lose sight of who the target group is. The next time you see an advertisement that causes you discomfort, ask yourself “am I the target group?”  If not, that advertising message may be doing a better job than you think.

We want the latest fashion jeans even though there are 10 pairs in our closet that we could wear. For me it’s Cole Haan shoes. I like the edgy styles they have, however, the truth is I have two pairs that I don’t wear because the edgy style came and went faster than I could wear them out. I’ve made some emotional decisions that no matter how hard I tried, I could not rationalize.

In my early years of employment I did my share of complaining. I remember one particular time when I was complaining about all kinds of things that seemed unfair or that I would change to someone at the company I worked for. The recipient of this sermon gave me some great advice. They said, “before you waste time complaining about your job or make a decision to change jobs, take time to gather some real data.” This person encouraged me to write down everything that bothered me about my job and everything I enjoyed about my job over a period of two weeks, two months, whatever length of time it took to make a decision based on data — not emotion. Once the time period ended, I would have rational data to make a good decision rather than making an emotional decision that might take me in the wrong career direction.

The advisor said, “it’s like buying a home; you’ll never find one that is perfect – even if you design and build it yourself. After a while you will want to change something.” I took the advice and after four weeks looked at my list. I realized that everything I was complaining about was pretty small and insignificant. This system can also work when you are complaining about your significant other. You’ll never find one that is perfect, and changing a person is near impossible.

It’s human nature to make emotional decisions. We need to continue to think about the emotional when we are writing copy and creating messages to communicate. The emotional is what grabs the attention of target groups. Then, we need to follow with the rational features and benefits that will justify that they made the best buying decision.

Marketing is an amazing business to be part of. What we create with our ideas and skills can affect a whole bunch of people – even change lives. Each day is different, bringing with it a new opportunity to be creative. Enjoy!