A Three-Legged Stool: The Role of Marketing in Your Business

The Biggest and Best Full-Service Lafayette, Indiana Marketing Firm Offers Tips to Grow Your Business

The Role of Marketing in Business

When I talk about the role of marketing in your business, one of my go-to, big-picture metaphors, is all about a three-legged stool. It usually goes like this:

One leg represents marketing.

This leg represents the process of creating brand awareness and marketing to be found. It positions the company or brand by differentiating from the competition, displaying unique features and benefits, and developing an effective call-to-action to set up sales or bring in leads. In the best case scenario, good advertising will reach the qualified and most coveted target audience to create brand preference. Turn advertising on to drive the target market to sales. If this leg works too hard, sales may not have the capacity to convert.

One leg represents sales.

The sales leg represents the process that delivers on the brand promise the first leg makes. It validates that the target market is indeed a potential customer and that they value the brand and company for the right reasons. Sales also confirm that the company or brand can deliver what the target market is looking for at a fair price. Converting the target market not just for the short run, but in a best-case scenario, into a recurring, long-term customer. Turn sales on to drive the target market to sales conversion. If sales work too hard, operations may not have the capacity to convert.

One leg represents operations.

The operations leg represents the process of getting the product or service to the new customer, which, in turn, delivers on the promise sales made to the new customer. Obviously, capacity has a lot to do with not only the ability to keep up with orders but also to deliver the quality and customer service that directly tie back into the brand promise made by the other two legs.

In the “stool” metaphor, all three legs—marketing, sales, and operations—work in concert to act as a platform to grow your business. They have to. Completing the metaphor, if even one of the legs is not working, the stool collapses and…

..the company could fall on its ass…

…potentially lose business and market share.

When you talk with idc, we will be asking you and your team a lot of questions about your business, including your sales process the capacity of your operation. The better dialed into how your company operates, the better we will be able to develop a marketing strategy that works with your sales and operations to grow your business.

Are you looking for marketing to help your business to get sales rolling? From strategy to marketing and branding to advertising, we are always interested in helping you grow!

First introduced in 1972, idc-marketing is the most helpful, most prominent, and oldest advertising firm in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.