Every Problem Is A Marketing Problem

One of my go-to phrases in conversations is that “Every problem in a marketing problem” — and I don’t mean solely in conversations about marketing. Marketing IS communications. Marketing is about getting your ideas across to another person and trying to get them to agree with you. I think most disagreements between people and companies and political groups happen because of poor marketing (poor communications).

Marketing isn’t restricted to advertising campaigns.
Marketing is the ability to communicate ideas and convince others to adopt your idea and/or join your cause.

Right now the news is covering a public and political uproar over whether or not cities should “Defund The Police”, but the opponents to this proposal have rallied around communicating and convincing the public that Defund = Dismantle or eliminate entirely — and that’s not what proponents of this strategy intended.

Defunding the police does not mean getting rid of the police altogether. It means taking budget and resources that have been assigned police departments in order to handle situations that do not require an escalation in force and reallocate them to more appropriate organizations who should be called on (instead of the police) to handle. Societal problems like poverty, mental illness, and homelessness don’t need to be handled by police acting as of enforcers, and might be better served using medical or treatment based response teams.

What you name things matter.

Naming causes and projects and product and services is a marketing problem.
A better name might have eliminated (or at least reduced) the number of people fighting against the idea. The poor choice of this name has required valuable time and energy be spent on disputing the misrepresentation of the Defund = Eliminate in the mind of the public and would have allowed for more debate and negotiating for a middle ground that both sides could have accepted.

Your inability to sway your event committee into buying into your idea was a marketing problem

You weren’t able to communicate your idea in a way that won them over to your side. You left questions unanswered or didn’t explain the concept fully or didn’t effectively address objections and concerns from the decision makers.

That doesn’t mean the world is against you or people don’t like you — it means you need to get better at solving marketing problems. How can you present information in a way to win people to your side rather than having them side against you?

The answer to that question will help you solve your marketing problem.