I just finished reading some dueling commentary by Darren and Kathy about who should produce instruction manuals, marketing or techies. Both make excellent points. Kathy suggests we inject some of the artfulness from the pre-sale side of the equation (fancy brochure) into the back-end (user manual). Darren responds that people don't want to be "resold" (my quote, not his) once they've already bought...just tell us how it works. And, hire better tech writers if the manual stinks.
Again, Kathy and Darren are very clever...and, I happen to agree with both of them. Marketing happens all of the time...from the moment the idea is set in motion (when you present it to your team) until the instant when the product/service dies...on the shelf and in the minds of the user.
Marketing is the process of creating images which result in feelings, about you and your product. That's it in a nutshell. So, anything you do or create whether it be on the front-end or the back, is marketing...and extremely important.
So, think about who you're promoting the next time you wear that Jeff Foxworthy T-shirt.
