The meaning of marketing is so screwed-up today that I jump for joy when I hear of a case of real marketing.
And I just read about a real beaut. Marketing is identifying or creating opportunities that make the most profitable use of a company's, or, in this case, an individual's assets.
At http://money.cnn.com is thestory of a software engineer who heard his brother-in-law, a roofer, complaining about the difficulty of climbing and measuring for roof repair estimates.
So he set out to build a software program to eliminate the climbing and measuring by hand. He used his neighbor's roof as a test. Photographed his wife's bird house roof from many angles. Holed-up nights and weekends developing software around a series of algorithms. Raised $200,000 from family and friends, then bought the rights to aerial photographs all over the country.
His company, EagleView, did $1.4 million in business the first year. Last year, year three, it did $40 million.
Chris Pershing of Seattle recognized an opportunity on which he could maximize his assets: software knowledge, common sense, and determination.
That's marketing. Identifying your assets and applying them to an existing opportunity.
To reach Mr. Malmo, hear and read more of his commentaries, or to ask him your own marketing question, go to http://askmalmo.com.