7 Marketing Myths That Can Be Fatal to Your Business
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 4:00 am
Many businesses – especially Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) – still get lost in a lethal cycle: no one knows about the business, sales don't grow and the entrepreneur ends up closing down.
What many of these managers don't know is that their businesses could be saved and have a better future if they overcame certain prejudices regarding an ally that is as underestimated as it is powerful: marketing.
To help clarify how this area is fundamental to the growth and longevity of any business, Alessandro Basile, partner at AGMKT and professor of the Tudo Sobre Marketing course, from Administradores Premium, lists below 7 myths that can compromise the health of a company:
1) “Marketing is not for my business”
According to Basile, it is a common mistake, especially qatar whatsapp data among small and medium-sized business owners, to believe that marketing is an area that is disconnected from companies or even unnecessary for certain sectors and businesses.
In fact, as the executive explains, it is a set of strategic activities aimed at satisfying the customer's needs and desires, including product planning, communication, distribution and pricing policy.
“Marketing should be seen as the backbone of your business. Companies that seek to achieve better results today clearly understand that marketing is what will ensure that they are focused on market demands and gaps, and their target audience,” explains Basile.
Marketing not only applies to all types of businesses, it should be used by all of them.
2) “Marketing and advertising are the same thing”
“Advertising or communication actions are just one part of marketing strategies”, highlights Basile.
The importance of this area is not limited to the creation of leaflets, banners or advertisements on social networks; before exploring these resources, and for them to be used productively and efficiently, the company needs to define its marketing directions and objectives — understanding how to serve the market.
“Marketing is the orientation, the organized positioning that will support the company’s communication with the public”, he defines.
3) “Marketing and sales are the same thing”
“Both are areas that need to work together, but they have different functions,” explains Basile.
“Marketing’s role is to make sales a superfluous act, with the mission of generating flows to facilitate sales activity and produce effective results,” adds the professor at Administradores Premium. All of this is done through communication, product, price and distribution strategies that are appropriate for the target audience.
You need to have good marketing strategies to get good sales results.
4) “I’ve always worked without marketing and it worked out well”
Another common mistake among SMEs, especially those that have been in business for years, is to believe that the fact that they have managed to generate good results without marketing over time means that they do not need to resort to this area for the present and future.
As Basile warns, this is a dangerous trap that will certainly bring significant difficulties to businesses that refuse to invest in marketing in the digital information age. “Past results do not guarantee future results. The market is changing rapidly; we are living in a transition phase, new digital technologies are having a decisive impact on all businesses, including the way they relate to consumers.
“It’s not just the crisis that can take a company out of the market, the lack of adaptation and updating processes can also do so. It’s important to recycle and understand how your company should position itself in this new context,” says the executive.
5) “Advertising the company is always a cost”
In fact, if there is no type of plan or organization for communication actions, promoting a company will become a huge cost for the entrepreneur, since the absence of strategic planning in marketing will hardly generate good results.
“For companies that know how to approach it, communication is, in fact, an investment,” says Basile, mentioning the various digital resources available on the market today to execute, monitor and measure the performance of online marketing campaigns.
“But, again, to obtain a return on this investment, the business needs to be organized: have a good website, a clear direction for communication actions and a good relationship with the target audience on social media”, he highlights.
6) “Social media is for teenagers”
Speaking of social media, there is still a lot of prejudice about these channels, which are full of potential for any business. Many entrepreneurs still believe that platforms like Facebook and Instagram are not suitable for their businesses because they are supposedly geared towards teenage entertainment.
What many of these managers don't know is that their businesses could be saved and have a better future if they overcame certain prejudices regarding an ally that is as underestimated as it is powerful: marketing.
To help clarify how this area is fundamental to the growth and longevity of any business, Alessandro Basile, partner at AGMKT and professor of the Tudo Sobre Marketing course, from Administradores Premium, lists below 7 myths that can compromise the health of a company:
1) “Marketing is not for my business”
According to Basile, it is a common mistake, especially qatar whatsapp data among small and medium-sized business owners, to believe that marketing is an area that is disconnected from companies or even unnecessary for certain sectors and businesses.
In fact, as the executive explains, it is a set of strategic activities aimed at satisfying the customer's needs and desires, including product planning, communication, distribution and pricing policy.
“Marketing should be seen as the backbone of your business. Companies that seek to achieve better results today clearly understand that marketing is what will ensure that they are focused on market demands and gaps, and their target audience,” explains Basile.
Marketing not only applies to all types of businesses, it should be used by all of them.
2) “Marketing and advertising are the same thing”
“Advertising or communication actions are just one part of marketing strategies”, highlights Basile.
The importance of this area is not limited to the creation of leaflets, banners or advertisements on social networks; before exploring these resources, and for them to be used productively and efficiently, the company needs to define its marketing directions and objectives — understanding how to serve the market.
“Marketing is the orientation, the organized positioning that will support the company’s communication with the public”, he defines.
3) “Marketing and sales are the same thing”
“Both are areas that need to work together, but they have different functions,” explains Basile.
“Marketing’s role is to make sales a superfluous act, with the mission of generating flows to facilitate sales activity and produce effective results,” adds the professor at Administradores Premium. All of this is done through communication, product, price and distribution strategies that are appropriate for the target audience.
You need to have good marketing strategies to get good sales results.
4) “I’ve always worked without marketing and it worked out well”
Another common mistake among SMEs, especially those that have been in business for years, is to believe that the fact that they have managed to generate good results without marketing over time means that they do not need to resort to this area for the present and future.
As Basile warns, this is a dangerous trap that will certainly bring significant difficulties to businesses that refuse to invest in marketing in the digital information age. “Past results do not guarantee future results. The market is changing rapidly; we are living in a transition phase, new digital technologies are having a decisive impact on all businesses, including the way they relate to consumers.
“It’s not just the crisis that can take a company out of the market, the lack of adaptation and updating processes can also do so. It’s important to recycle and understand how your company should position itself in this new context,” says the executive.
5) “Advertising the company is always a cost”
In fact, if there is no type of plan or organization for communication actions, promoting a company will become a huge cost for the entrepreneur, since the absence of strategic planning in marketing will hardly generate good results.
“For companies that know how to approach it, communication is, in fact, an investment,” says Basile, mentioning the various digital resources available on the market today to execute, monitor and measure the performance of online marketing campaigns.
“But, again, to obtain a return on this investment, the business needs to be organized: have a good website, a clear direction for communication actions and a good relationship with the target audience on social media”, he highlights.
6) “Social media is for teenagers”
Speaking of social media, there is still a lot of prejudice about these channels, which are full of potential for any business. Many entrepreneurs still believe that platforms like Facebook and Instagram are not suitable for their businesses because they are supposedly geared towards teenage entertainment.