While I was writing the script for my webinar I remembered this financial controller I knew once who used to delight in telling me marketing was fluffy. We used to laugh about it but I’m sure he was convinced that compared to hard figures, marketing was just candy floss.

Of course it isn’t just candy floss at all. There’s a good deal more to marketing than people sometimes realize.

I always see marketing as two sides of a coin. It’s a money metaphor again but I’m not ashamed to use it.

One side is visually driven. The logo, the adverts, the brochures, the website…. This side is where the graphic designers work their magic. Graphic designers are very clever people who know how to catch your eye and be aesthetically pleasing.

The other side is analysis driven. That’s my side. My side is about understanding your customer, knowing who your customers are, why they buy, what they buy, when they buy and how to generate more profit from them.

I was going to say the first side is the creative side. Actually both sides are creative – creative as in problem solving.

While we’re talking about my favourite visual metaphors – I also see marketing as an iceberg. The top tenth is what the customer sees, reads and hears. The bottom nine tenths are what a business has to do to make sure all that communication is effective……developing the strategy, writing the marketing plan, making a product fit for purpose, understanding customers’ unmet needs, finding new customers, keeping their database clean… the list goes on.

Candy floss? I don’t think so.