Why "marketing" is what companies do for a living

Further evidence that the marketing function isn't just a "function", but the very raison d'etre of any commercial enteprise: commentary from last week's conference presented by the Wharton Entrepreneurial Club, University of Pennsylvania. Our partner Steve Turner sparked discussion amongst the aspiring entrepreneurs, MBA students, Wharton alumni, faculty, venture capitalists and business owners in attendance when he shared anecdotes about new-product paranoia (read: what engineers fear about broaching the subject of new products with customers). To wit: Engineers with a new product idea they think is "the next new thing" often fear that someone will rip it off. While this does happen, it's usually after a disruptive product proves that there's market worth pursuing. "Disruptive" ideas are typically ridiculed at first. They are resisted by conventional wisdom. Would-be competitors who hear about a concept and then reject it out of hand do so because of NIH and fear. They don’t want the success in which they are invested to be undermined by a new technology that will disrupt the status quo—which always includes their job. If you sense fear, you have a good idea. Moral to this story: "Marketing" is really about producting-ing and customer-ing. All business starts with a product, and all successful products are conceived in the womb of intelligent, streetwise marketing. "Knowing" the customers/consumers you target and pursue, in the quantitative sense of the word, isn't enough. Streetwise marketing -- what we call Customer Advocacy(tm) -- implies a keen emotional and psychological knowledge that is cumulative and nonstop. In this sense, "marketing" is nothing more or less than what your enterprise does for a living. What function can possibly be more fundamental?