Marketing educates, informs, and influences prospective customers. Marketing drives companies' profits. Yet certain myths about marketing can severely hurt the sales of products or services.

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	A large number of purchasing options confuses customers.

Marketing professionals must be aware of the following myths:

1. Superior products and services don’t require marketing.

Markets, not producers, determine the superiority or inferiority of products and services. Many technically superior products have failed miserably. Creating awareness and positive perceptions of products and services can boost sales. Many well-known brands are the results of marketing.

2. Attacking competitors’ weaknesses is the best marketing strategy.

People don’t buy competitors’ products because of the products’ weaknesses but because of the products’ strengths. Rather than attacking your competitors, assess their strengths and develop a plan for marketing your own strengths. Also, pay attention to what’s going on in the market.

3. In times of recession, you should cut down on marketing costs.

Many companies, maybe even your competitors, commit this mistake. Don’t follow their leads. Downscaling marketing efforts will result in the reduction of sales and profits. With effective marketing, recessions can be opportunities to capture certain market shares. Thus, when the economy bounces back, you will be in the lead.

4. People buy cheap things.

Most people want value for their money. That is the reason why markets abound with so many products sold at different rates. Instead of lowering prices, it is more important to target the right audience.

5. Offering a wide range of products and services ensures more sales.

A large number of purchasing options confuses customers. They may postpone their decisions or make the wrong choices. If enough time passes, some customers may forget to buy or abandon their purchase plans altogether.

6. People like frequently changing ads.

Logically, people should become bored with the same ads, but market behavior often defies logic. Frequently changing ads irritate existing customers. People often know products and services because of their ads. Frequently changing ads may contain inconsistent messages and create identity crises. Abandoning ads that have yielded results can be risky.

7. Marketing is advertising and sales.

Marketing includes all efforts to win customers. The combination of advertising, selling, mailing, online marketing, events, public relations, strategic partnerships, and networking brings success.

8. Great marketing brings instant gains.

Like all good investments, marketing takes time to be effective. Winning people’s confidence requires sustained contact with target audiences and is a slow process. People are sometimes suspicious of gimmicks and clever-sounding marketing methods.

9. Award-winning ad campaigns sell products and services.

For businesses, selling products and services is more important than creating award-winning ad campaigns. If an ad agency seems more interested in winning awards than promoting the company’s products, it may be time to find a new agency.

10. Bad publicity is better than no publicity.

Any bad publicity is bad for a company’s sales, revenues, and image.

On the net:

Facts and Myths About Marketing
www.deer-library.com/artman/publish/article_105.shtml

The 8 Biggest Marketing Myths
www.dcwoolsey.com/html/myths.html

4 Marketing Myths That Threaten Your Sales
www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/myths.htm

Top 10 Marketing Myths
www.vista-consulting.com/marketing-articles/top-10-marketing-myths.htm

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