There are several activities for this section of the course. There are links to each of the activities below. But before we move on lets get some clarity on marketing and why marketing is so important for entrepreneurs.
According to Julie Barile – Vice President of eCommerce, Fairway Market:
Marketing is traditionally the means by which an organization communicates to, connects with, and engages its target audience to convey the value of and ultimately sell its products and services. However, since the emergence of digital media, in particular social media and technology innovations, it has increasingly become more about companies building deeper, more meaningful and lasting relationships with the people that they want to buy their products and services. The ever-increasingly fragmented world of media complicates marketers’ ability connect and, at the same, time presents incredible opportunity to forge new territory.
Renee Blodgett – Chief Executive Officer/Founder, Magic Sauce Media defines marketing as:
an ongoing communications exchange with customers in a way that educates, informs and builds a relationship over time. The over time part is important because only over time can trust be created. With trust, a community builds organically around products and services and those customers become as excited about the products as you are — they become advocates, loyal evangelists, repeat customers and often, friends. Marketing is a really great way to identify what grabs people and gets them excited about your brand and give it to them, involve them in the process, and yeah, the best part, build great friendships in the process.
From these two explanations, we can concluded that marketing involves communicating with a particular user of a product or service. Moreover, it should be clear that marketing is the way that startup ventures build awareness of their product or service. Thus, if a startup is going to be successful they must be able to communicate with their potential customers in ways that connect with these future customers. This implies that you understand your customers and that your offering addresses their needs. You should see a clear connection between the validation of your idea and your marketing.
For an exhaustive list of definitions, please click here.
Activity 1 — Branding and Tagline graphics
Activity 2 — Social Media Campaign
