Several days ago a client invited me to lead a session on marketing for a group of marketing executives from various business units in the company. When I asked what was expected from my session, I was told, “Create a teaching point. Teach us something.”

After some thought and deliberation I assembled a presentation on the Pivotal vision of Marketing. During the course of the presentation one of the questions I posed was “What is Marketing?” When my PowerPoint with that question flashed on the screen, a participant piped up “My neighbor is an accountant and always asks me that very question.”

It’s a good question. And one that seems to have no single universal answer. Amazon.com lists 106,093 titles in the Business and Sales section of the site alone when queried with “Marketing” as a search term. Lots of opinions there, I suspect.

What is Marketing? Well from our perspective the answer lies in a continuum of perception states we identify as

Awareness • Interest • Preference

To create Preference. We believe that is the goal of Marketing. Indeed it is the goal of your entire organization. In today’s parlance, the goal of your “brand.”

Think about how your company, your culture, your “brand” create preference. This concept transcends just marketing, but requires the full power of your organization hitting on all cylinders. It touches upon every aspect of our enterprise … even accounting.

To create Preference. We believe that is the goal of Marketing.

To create preference. The process begins with the tools of marketing and, when successful, culminates in a lasting relationship with your customer.

And that is a definition an accountant (or even a marketer) can understand and appreciate.