"What Is Marketing?" How To Explain Marketing To A Child
What is Marketing?
〰️
What is Marketing? 〰️
This past November, my friend Heather asked if I wanted to present at a S.T.E.A.M. Career Day event. (S.T.E.A.M. = Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics.)
The rules were fairly simple:
“Each presentation session will last approximately 20-25 minutes. And the audience will include students in grades 4th-8th.”
Of course, I said yes. Sat down to work on this v important presentation. And then I realized…
DOING Marketing is one thing. You learn the skills. You perfect your skills. You execute your skills. And then you continue to refine, experiment, and test as you go.
BUT… How do you break it down and EXPLAIN Marketing to a group of 4th-8th graders in a way they will understand?!
^ Me brainstorming.
So, I started thinking…
And then I started overthinking…
And then I realized that in order to connect with these kids, I had to remove all that “Marketing fluff” that I’m so used to and put my thoughts into terms children will understand and resonate with. (i.e. Remove terms like “optimization” and “analysis” and instead focus on things like “how to get people to buy dog toys.”)
So, in this blog post, I am going to explain Marketing to you like you are a 4th grader.
And hopefully, in about 10-15 years we will see a few new Marketers out in the world who were inspired by my super exciting presentation about dog toys! (Hey… you never know! 😝)
In this blog post, I am going to cover:
What is marketing?
What are the 4 Ps OF MARKETING?
breaking the 4 Ps down step by step
How to determine your target audience
How to reach your target audience
Choosing the right marketing channel for your audience
What skills do you need to be a good marketer?
Feel free to scroll through and read it piece by piece, OR if you want to view the full presentation, click HERE.
And now, put yourself in the mindset of a 4th grader and read on!
How To Explain Marketing To A 4th grader
What is Marketing?
Marketing is telling people about your product or service and helping them understand why they would want or need it.
What are the 4 Ps of marketing?
The 4 Ps of marketing help a company make necessary decisions in order to launch a product or service. They include:
Product
What the company sells.
Price
How much you charge for your product or service.
Place
Where you advertise your product or service.
Promotion
How your customers find out about you.
Let's break it down step by step
Let's say I work for a company that sells dog toys...
My job = To TELL as many people as possible about the dog toys so they BUY the toys and the company makes money.
But, wait! How do I know WHO to tell about the dog toys and HOW to reach them?
I can't just go yell off a mountain and expect people to buy my dog toys.
And, I can't just tell a bunch of people with cats that I sell dog toys.
^Clearly Taylor Swift doesn’t need DOG toys, she needs CAT toys, food, litter, etc…
I must determine my TARGET AUDIENCE.
How to determine your target audience
THINK: WHO buys dog toys?
ANSWER: People who have dogs!
Great! Now that I know WHO will buy the product, I have to figure out HOW to REACH them...
How to reach your target audience
THINK: How can I REACH people with dogs?
ANSWER: Through different marketing channels!
You can choose to use just ONE marketing channel...
...or, as MANY as you'd like!
YAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUT... you want to use the marketing channels that make the most sense for your product or service.
Choosing the right marketing channel for your audience
So, sticking with my dog toy example, I would...
Create a website with quality content so people can find the dog toys
Create social media sites & strategies for the company
Collect email addresses for a fun newsletter
Run ads on Google for when people search for dog toys
Then, I would keep track of how my marketing channels are performing, make changes if needed, & try more things!
What skills do you need to be a good marketer?
Marketing is not a typical skill people are born with because the role continues to change and evolve. But there are some core skills that every Marketer needs.
You need to be:
Creative
Good communicator
Strategic
Innovative
Collaborative
a Good writer
Flexible
Curious
Passionate
& TOTALLY AWESOME!
I hope this was helpful for the next time you have to explain Marketing to 4th graders!
Happy Marketing, my friends!