Is social marketing powerful enough to sell ketchup to a woman wearing white gloves? Well if that woman stains her gloves red, it'll be a short lived campaign...and will cripple future endeavors.

Many assume that a solid marketing or social media strategy will be an instant catalyst for sales. By engaging with an audience and having a really creative way to showcase your product, your sales will go through the roof. In a lot of ways, this is true. After all if you convince your audience that they have to have it, they will certainly buy it.

It's an okay short term plan...but not so much for sustainability.

This new age of transparent marketing and social engagement relies heavily on trust. Your consumers will buy your product trusting that it will be worth they money paid - that buying it will be a mutually beneficial experience. In a trust building environment, having a crappy product will only go so far. Eventually people will catch on and will bring down your credibility.

I recently had my own experience with a crappy product/service. As a result, I went online to learn more customer reviews to see if others experienced similar situations. Turns out they had and the Google fed me page after page of bad results. If someone were to do their homework on this company, they would be less likely to do business with them.

So where does good marketing begin? It all starts with product. If what you're selling isn't there, you're marketing efforts will eventually fall short. In the sales cycle, marketing is only part of the final equation.

What do you think?