A principle is a concept or value that is a guide for behaviour or evaluation. According to Cambridge Dictionary, a principle is a basic idea or rule that explains or controls how something happens or works. If you have read some of my earlier posts, I refer to a guy named Harrington Emerson, that stated “As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.” 

Marketing is defined as "the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer”. In other words; Marketing is all activities that you do to prepare for sales. It is vital for us to understand the principles of marketing and its place in the world. Understanding and applying the principles will be essential to defining and applying said principles to the right marketing methods for success.

Over the years I have worked with small clients, big clients, “unknown” and globally known brands and I have discovered that the rule of convenience is ever-present when it comes to how they do marketing for a lot of companies. The fact that there are so many that look for the quick fix, simple ways to get some short term results, ignoring to put the work and build that strong foundation before applying methods to their marketing tactics. It’s understandable, especially if you are passionate about your trade, then naturally marketing isn’t the thing you are aware of or focused on, especially marketing done right.

Think about it, all the Tai Lopez’s, Sam Ovens’es, Ben Angels’es and other “gurus” out there, are all focusing on the methods you should apply, the tactics on how to have success with your social media marketing, lead magnets, and Facebook advertising, yet ignoring the basics. They don’t tell you the importance of having the proper foundation for your brand, company or service. Perhaps (and maybe natural) they take it for granted that this is in place, but you’d be surprised how many don’t have it, or if it is done, it’s probably in the bottom of a drawer someplace. 

If you don’t invest the hours and resources to really figure out the why, how, what, to whom and when, by applying the principles of marketing, you will spend a lot of money and time on stuff that might give you a quick bang for the buck, but not sustainable over time. So in the end, your company, your brand, your employees and your customers will suffer, and you as the entrepreneur will end up hitting the infamous wall.  

So here are my thoughts; 

My marketing principles are a culmination of 20+ years of experience in the marketing industry. I have more or less done it all; My dad had a print shop, so I started out breathing, sweating and learning the value of hard work, surrounded by paper, ink and visual tactics on behalf of my dad's clients, brands from a wide spectrum of categories. Now - what I soon came to realise, was that I wanted to be the guy creating the tactics, creating the big idea and the graphic design that was to be produced at a print shop. So my journey as a storyteller and creator started.  I became an art director. From there I moved on to become a creative director, strategist, planner, agency owner - and pretty much doing at some level every role at the agency. In 2008 I became more focused on the social media side of things, then did some more work as a creative director which transformed to becoming a chief innovation officer. The interesting thing though, was that I always started with the why, what is the purpose and what are we trying to achieve? What is the business target? Whom are we trying to convince, and why are they not doing what we want them to? What are the barriers, the drivers and how can marketing play a part in changing their behaviour? What are the touch-points? The Customer Journey; my FIND - LIKE - LOVE process, that I have used so many times when working on clients. 

So to quickly sum up my principles, my four pillars of marketing is as follows ;

1. INSIGHT; This is the data, the context if you will, about your company, competition, category, channels and customer

2. AMBITION; What are your goals and objectives, how do you apply said insight to affect behaviours and outcome

3. TOUCHPOINTS; Really dig down on where your customer is, and the touchpoints where you can connect and interact on a contextual, cultural and community level

4. BLUEPRINT; What role will communication play, the tonality, tone of voice, visual elements, and assets to make all the above points come to play.
   

Why is this important?

You can’t build a house, a relationship, a company, a brand - without a solid foundation, without defining the bases of where you are and where you want to go. That is the only way you are going to be able to navigate. You need to know point A before you can reach point B. It’s that simple, and yet so complicated - or not really complicated, it just requires hard work. The reason why it is neglected is that it seems tedious, and you, well everybody “knows” right? So no need to do that boring “strategy” part, let’s just make some Facebook ads, create some variations and see which performs better and voila - we are all good.

Sorry, but no. You need to start with the principles; the basics, Define the purpose of your company, brand, product or service, what type of category are you part of, who are your competitors, which channels are most relevant and who are your customers, their needs and wants? What is their behaviour, and how can we influence that behaviour? Are there any cultural, contextual considerations, is there a community we can work with? 

Start with these important questions and you’ll soon realise that building a foundation based on solid principles, will give you the base to build methods and tactical assets that will be far more effective and build a brand that is going to last for decades. 

“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”

Let me know if I can be of assistance, and be on the lookout for my next article 

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