NEWSLINE: PICTURE YOUR MISSION
Artist Linda Armantrout, owner of Armantrout Graphic Design and
Illustration, works with businesses to help them picture their goals-
literally-through a "pictorial mission statement. "
As op;:JOsed to the typical written mission statement that is handed
down to employees from management. Armantrout creates a bright
watercolor picture of the statement, after receiving input from both
employees and managers, The final result is usually a collage of sorts
that depicts what is important to the s taff and the business-such a s
clients, products, services, and ethics.
The mission statement picture that Armantrout designs is framed
and hung at the company to remind employees of their goals. The piC-
torial statements also can be put on coffee mugs, jackets, and desk-
top posters, or turned into screen savers.
One of Armantrout's clients, BancOne Leasing Corporation, came
up with a colorful image of a globe surrounded by images represent-
ing its clients and services. Drawings of airplanes and buses repre-
sent what the company leases and the globe represents its national
presence.
Sources: Katie Ford. "Pictu re Your Goals In Color, " The Denver Business Jour-
nal, March 17-18, 1999 , pp . 33A, 35A. Shirleen Holt, "Mission Possible, " Busi-
ness Week, August 16. 1999, p. F-12. Teri Lammers , ''The Effective and
Indispensable Mission Statement," Inc., August. 1999, p. 75.
Justifi cation for Study
This task of determining the appropriateness of marketing for a particular business or insti-
tution serves as a major justification for learning about marketing. Although marketing has
clearly come of age during the decades of the 1970, 1980s, and 1990s, there is still a
deal of misunderstanding about the meaning and usefulness of marketing. For most of the
global public, marketing is still equated with adverti sing and personal selling. While mar-
keting is both of those, it is also much more.
The business community can attrioute a partial explanatior.
this general lack of under-
standing about marketing to the uneven acceptance and adoption of marketing. Some busi-
nesses still exist in the dark ages when marketing was defined as "the sales department will sell whatever the piant produces." Others have advanced a bit further, in that they have a
marketing officer and engage in market research, product development, promotion and have
a long list of marketing activities. More and more businesses firmly believe that the aim of
marketing is to make selling superfluous, meaning that the marketer knows and understands
the customer so well that the product or service is already what's wanted a n d sells itself.
This does not mean that marketeis ignore the engineering and production of the product or
the importance of;Jfofits. It does suggest, however, that attention to customers-who they
are and who they are going to be-is seen to be in the best 10ng-tenn interest of the com-
pany. As a student imerested in business, it is beneficial for you to have an accurate and com-
plete comprehension of the role marketing can and should play in today's business world.
There are also several secondary reasons to study marketing. One we have already
alluded to in our discussion on definitions: The application of marketing to more nonprofit
MARKETING: DEFINITION AND JUSTIFICATION
7
and nonbusiness institutions is growing. Churches, museums, the United Way, the U.S. Armed
Forces, politicians, and others are hiring individuals with marketing expertise. This has opened up thousands of new job opportunities for those with a working knowledge of marketing.
Even if you are not getting a degree
marketing, knowing abou:: marketing will pay
off in a variety of careers. Consider the following individuals:
• Paul Moore, an engineer specializing in earth moving equipment, constantly works
with product development and sales personnel in order to create superior products.
• Christy Wood, a CPA, is a top tax specialist who spends much of her time main-
taining customer relationships, and at least three days
month seeking new customers.
• Steve Jacobson, a systems analyst and expert programmer, understands that his skills
must be used to find the right combination of hardware and software for every one
of his customers.
• Doris Kelly, a personnel manager, must be skilled at finding, hiring, and training
individuals to facilitate her organization's marketing efforts.
• Craig Roberts, an ex-Microsoft engineer, has recently started a dot-com company
and is in the process of raising capital.
There are two final factors that justify the study of marketing for nearly every citizen.
First of all, we are all consumers and act:ve participants in the marketing network. Under-
standing the rudiments of marketing will make us better consumers , which in tum will force
businesses to do their jobs better. Second, marketing has an impact on society as a whole.
Concepts such as trade deficit, embargo, devaluation of a foreign currency, price fixing, decep-
tive advertising, and product safety take on a whole new meaning when we view them in a
marketing context. This knowledge should make you a more enlightened citizen who under-
stands what such social and political issues mean to you and to our society.
Marketing capsules summarize the information throughout this text.
Characteristics of a Marketing Organization
As noted earlier, the application of marketing in a particular organization varies tremen-
dously, ranging from common-sense marketing to marketing departments with thousands
of staff members and multimillIOn-dollar budgets. Yet both may have a great deal in com-
mon in respect to how they view the activity called marketing. We refer to these common
characteristics as the Cs of Marketing . They are your clues that a business understands marketing.
MARKETING CAPSULE 1.
1. The purpose of marketing is to help find and keep cus-
4. The primary reasons for studying marketing are:
tomers by creating a competitive advantage.
a. It is important to assess the role marketing should play
2. Marketing, one of severai function s operating in an organ-
in the firm.
ization, is directed by the mission statement of the organ-
b. Marketing offers growing career opportunities.
ization and provides certain tools to reach objectives.
c. Marketing enhances our chances of becoming more
3. The value of marketing must be kept in perspective: it must
effective consumers and citizens.
contribute to the growth of the firm.
8