Marketing, The Formula

So I recently applied to a marketing position that required you to explain marketing in a creative way. I pondered the project for some time and since I lack the technology for a feature length film on marketing I went with the next logical choice... breaking marketing down into a full blown mathematical formula. I understand that this is quite the undertaking and also realize that it may take a lifetime to perfect, but hey if Einstein can do it with science why can't I do it with marketing. Anyways, I thank the fine people at Silver Square for the inspiration. Hope you all find it useful...

To explain my thoughts on what marketing is I contemplated on several different ideas including video, (which I shot down because I lack adequate editing software), an essay (I omitted this because it obviously lacks the creativity to appropriately express my feelings on marketing), and interpretive dance (this was one of my top choices until I realized you cannot effectively send a dance in an email). Having gone through those options and a few others I decided to create a formula that can mathematically show what I believe that marketing is.

Product + Resources + Relationships^2 = (MARKETING)

Now this is obviously a very vague overview of what marketing could be so I took the liberty of breaking the equation by section.

Product

Product is obviously a number of things so for the purposes of this formula I have broken it down:

Product = (direct) (indirect)

Direct = (tangible objects + services)

This is the thing that will actually be transferred to customers, any objects or ideas combined along with services that are offered either in place of or in addition to a tangible product.

Indirect = (relative knowledge +experience)

The indirect aspect of product references the pertinent information and related experience to/with the direct product. This is an important aspect when talking about marketing because it can have a direct influence on customer satisfaction, repeat sales, and client referrals.

Taking this into account your new product equation is:

Product = (tangible objects + services) (relative knowledge +experience)

Resources

Resources understanding an allocation is a very important and extensive portion of marketing, thus it is the largest portion of the formula.

Resources = physical + time + personnel

This is not the elaborate equation promised, but hang in there it will be.

Physical in this equation stands for little more than essential tangible resources such as technologies, paper, buildings, desks, ink, cameras, recorders, ect.

Time = (available hours – hours after deadline) + overtime

For the purpose of this explanation I have narrowed time to the spectrum of the work week. Where time is the amount of hours left until your dead line within the normal confines of the work week less any hours that remain in the week later than the assigned deadline in addition to any extra hours that personnel are willing to attribute to a project out of their personal time.

Personnel = (ability +personality + creativity) quantity

Personnel is defined by the amount of people available represented by “quantity”. Understanding that it is nearly impossible to define or measure the quality of a person I have instead narrowed it to the relevant attributes to marketing being the ability that a person as, their personality, and the extent of their creativity.

The resulting equation is:

Resources = Physical + [(available hours – hours after deadline) + overtime] + [(ability +personality + creativity) quantity]

Relationships

By far the most important aspect of marketing, relationships are the key factor in any successful marketing activity.

Relationships^2 = (relationships)(relationships)

Marketing

So after having stretched out the formula to its full size you have:

MARKETING = [(tangible objects + services) (relative knowledge +experience)] + {Physical + [(available hours – hours after deadline) + overtime] + [(ability +personality + creativity) quantity]} + [(relationships)(relationships)]

picture via: http://education-portal.com