If you’re new to the business world, you might find yourself asking questions like what is marketing? And you might not be familiar with certain terms like market research, public relations or market segmentation. So here is a simple and useful analogy to explain marketing and all its different parts. You may have come across this before, but it’s always a good one to remember –

If the circus was coming, and you went looking for a site to pitch the ‘Big Top’, that’s market research.

If you painted a sign before the circus came to town announcing, “Circus Coming to Town on Saturday!”, that’s advertising.

If you put your sign on the back of an elephant and marched it through town, that’s promotion.

If the elephant, still with the sign on his back, tramples through the mayor’s garden, and it makes the evening news, that’s publicity.

If you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations (PR).

If you deliberately lead the elephant past schools and through residential neighborhoods, that’s market segmentation.

When town’s residents come to your circus and you show them the array of games, treats and entertainment stalls, explain how much fun they’ll have enjoying the circus performers, answer their questions about the attractions and, ultimately, they spend their hard-earned money at your circus, that’s sales.

If you created, planned and managed all these activities, that’s MARKETING!

A simple yet effective analogy that should answer your question and make it easy to remember.