What's great marketing?

The word marketing evokes different things to different people. For me, it's been a lifetime pursuit, from the early beginnings of my corporate career until today as I've become more of a consumer than a creator of that elusive substance. Today, I'll try to define it in terms a non-marketing person should be able to grasp.

Great marketing is smooth and natural
To paraphrase the definition of Tao, great marketing shouldn't be seen, yet it's there. It's been built up in the DNA of the product or the service with the consumer in mind and it's never obtrusive. If it were, it would reveal itself, kill the magic and make the whole proposition mercantile and far less desirable. It often blends so well with everyday life that we say: “So simple, I could have thought of that myself!”

Great marketing runs from “cradle to grave” 
From the time a new marketable idea germinates, it needs to be nurtured, channeled, tutored. Its hands must be held. This goes from the original thought to research and development, actual creation or manufacturing, appropriate distribution, maintenance, continual improvements, repair and death of the whole concept.

Great marketing is guessing right 
It's hard to ask people about their wants and needs; they generally don't know. They can only respond to things and ideas that are offered to them. The job of a great marketeer is to first visualize and then synthesize what people are likely to want and crave. That demands a vivid imagination, an uncanny ability to visualize and experience elements that don't yet exist and transmute them into the real world.

Great marketing never stops 
It's the gift to accept that nothing last forever and that the wonderful product or service that was just created will soon be equaled, overtaken and left in the dust by its peers. It's the drive to working tirelessly to obsolete today's creation and imagining its replacement, just like reptiles shed their skin. It's the ability to look at competition with curious, instead of fearful, jealous or contemptible eyes.

Great marketing is super addictive 
Because of its originality and creative twist, the offering is like nothing ever created and addresses needs that are finally satisfied. It's generally feels like reaching a plateau or a mountain-top where we discover vista never experienced before. It can't be replaced in its entirety by copies or second-ran alternatives. Worse, we suddenly feel that we couldn't do anything without it. It has become a game-changer, a life changer.

Great marketing is in a class by itself...