Case in point. I made a telephone call to a gospel quartet last night in order to book them for our church’s upcoming gospel sing. During the conversation, he asked me what I was doing now. I told him about the company, gave him my URL for our website (www.pierianmanages.com), and went on with my description. He interrupted me, and asked me if I had just told him that I managed and promoted Southern Gospel quartets. I told him yes, and I’ll never forget his next words: “sign me up”. Turns out he is a shuttle employee at Cape Canaveral, and is probably going to be laid off in September after the shuttle is retired. He wants to increase his group’s bookings to the point where he can go fulltime. The point here is, of course, that customers are everywhere around you. Just “create the need”, and the rest will take care of itself.

Warren, you’re right; there is more to marketing. But “The Simplified Promotion Plan” just doesn’t have the same… punch!

The best definition of marketing is still based on the four Ps — product, place, price and promotion. This article does a nice job of organizing one-forth of the task called marketing.

Marketing is not simply promotion or advertising.