Does Marketing Create Value?

This blog post rambles a bit...bear with it :)

So I read a tweet from @NCStateMBA (where I got my MBA) that read "Marketing is all about creating value. Our Marketing Management MBA creates value for tomorrow’s business leaders". When I first read the tweet, the 1st sentence really struck me. Is marketing all about creating value?

So I have to admit, I am a bit biased since I'm a product guy...but the more I thought about the question the more I realized that marketing does not create the value, but they can participate in the process.

Pick up any marketing text book and they talk about the 3C's and 4P's. More often than not, a marketer will know how many customers the product has, and what the price is, and what the latest promotion is, etc. But they may not know the WHY! Why do your customers by your product? What need do they have? What are their selection criteria? What price would they be willing to pay? In fact, some marketers may not even care...they may be tasked with generating a set number of leads and that's about it.

I've recently read links\tweets that encourage startups to focus on the product and let that lead the way in creating customers. The product is the value. If you have a product that solves an unmet need and does so in a compelling way...it may not need that much marketing (if any). Your customers will spread the word. I'm willing to be if Apple did not have a single iPhone commercial, they still would be quite successful.

So is Marketing all about creating value? - I'd so in a perfect world they participate in the process, but they definitely don't create the value. I'd say the product development team creates the value.

That being said, I do think the NC State MBA does create a tremendous amount of value for those that get it and is really awesome. I've worked with a lot of MBAs from those "blue" schools nearby and I'll say that I'm glad I went to NCSU. One day, I wish I could go and get an MBA from one of those schools just to see what all the fuss is about, but I'm not sure I want to get saddled with those student loans. How's that for ROI!

P.S. If one of those blue schools is reading this, I'm willing to go there for free and blog\tweet about how wonderful your school is :)