Levitt and Drucker on Marketing - Old definitions still apply

A marketing definition that is often overlooked:
"Because its business is to find and keep customers, the business enterprise has two - and only two - basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are 'costs'." (Peter Drucker)

Theodore Levitt said it differently, but a nice comparison of the selling versus marketing.
"The difference between selling and marketing is that selling is getting rid of what you have, while marketing is having what people want." (Theodore Levitt)

As you conisder these two comments, here are two thoughts for the day to consider:
1. Are your marketing metrics and marketing efforts tied to innvoation in your origanization?
2. Does your sales team market your products by solving customer needs or are they selling your inventory?

Jet Blue Tweets Discount Air Fares - New Promotion Approach

Jet Blue and United have starting using Twitter for discount air fare promotions. This is an interesting test of an approach to generate marketing ROI from Twitter. As reported in this USA Today article, Jet Blue is sending out Tweets, typically on Mondays, announcing reduced airfares on unsold seats. The trick is that followers must react quickly to capture these discounted rates. (By the way, love the name "Cheeps" even though it may be too downscale and may cheapen the brand equity.) A recent tweet offered a $9 fare from JFK to Nantucket. It's a hihgly targeted approach to fill underutilized and expiring capacity by offering these discounts to a limited audience without widespread exposure to the rest of the market. There's always a new wrinkle for brand marketers... If you are small business, how might you use this approach to promote your brand in your local market?