25 Wise Marketing Quotes From the Best in the Business

We’ve all heard that the “cream of the top rises to the top” and that you should “work smarter, not harder”, but there’s a lot more to business marketing than following marketing quotes that probably hung on the walls of your middle school classrooms. While these two pieces of advice are great, we thought we’d treat you to twenty-five insightful quotes to improve your marketing from some of the top business brains in the world.

25 Best Marketing Quotes

While some of these marketing quotes may not apply exactly to your company, there is likely something to be gleaned from each of them. One of the fastest ways to get better at content marketing is to learn from the mistakes and successes of those who’ve gone before you, no matter what industry they’re in, and use that knowledge to make your content awesome. This is the way of the wise marketer.

So, let wisdom prevail, and enjoy the following business marketing quotes:

1. “If dogs don’t like your dog food, the packaging doesn’t matter.” – Stephen Denny, author of “Killing Giants”

2. “Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.” – Joe Chernov, content team manager for HubSpot

3. “All the creativity books in the world aren’t going to help you if you’re unwilling to have lousy, lame and even dangerously bad ideas.” – Seth Godin, launcher of Yoyodyne and Squidoo and author of “All Marketers Are Liars”

4. “It’s not what you know or who you know, but who knows you.” – Susan RoAne, author of “How to Work a Room”

5. “Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. It is the art of creating genuine customer value.” – Philip Kotler, professor of International Marketing at Northwestern University and author of over 55 books

6. “The art of marketing is the art of brand building. If you are not a brand, you are a commodity. Then price is everything and the low-cost producer is the only winner.” – Philip Kotler

7. “The only thing more expensive than hiring a professional is hiring an amateur.” – Red Adair, innovator and oil well firefighter

8. “Content is king, but marketing is queen and runs the household.” – Gary Vaynerchuk, business builder and owner of VaynerMedia

9. “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” – Peter Drucker, the “founder of modern management”

10. “Don’t build links. Build relationships.” – Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz

11. “Whether B2B or B2C, I believe passionately that good marketing essentials are the same. We all are emotional beings looking for relevance, context and connection.” – Beth Comstock, vice chair at GE

12. “Social media is about the people, not about your business. Provide for the people and the people will provide for you.” – Matt Goulart, founder and CEO of Ignite Digital

13. “Transforming a brand into a socially responsible leader doesn’t happen overnight by simply writing new marketing and advertising strategies. It takes effort to identify a vision that your customers will find credible and aligned with their values.” – Simon Mainwaring, marketing expert and founder of the concept of We First capitalism

14. “Pinterest is the new Google.” – Guy Kawasaki, author of “The Art of Social Media”

15. “If I’d have asked my customer what they wanted, they would have told me ‘A faster horse’.” – Henry Ford

16. “Creativity is one of the last remaining legal ways of gaining an unfair advantage over the competition.” – Ed McCabe, founder of McCabe & Company

17. “In network marketing, duplication is what success looks like.” – Michael S. Clouse, MLM expert

18. “The story is what’s going to get people excited.” – Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS

19. “Nobody cares about your products except you. Create interesting content!” – David Meerman Scott, author of “The New Rules of Marketing & PR”

20. “By publishing content that shows buyers you understand their problems and can show them how to solve them, you build credibility.” – Ardath Albee, author of “eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale”

21. “If your stories are all about your products and services, that’s not storytelling. It’s a brochure. Give yourself permission to make the story bigger.” – Jay Baer, founder Convince & Convert strategy consulting firm and five multi-million dollar businesses

22. “Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” – Andrew Davis, founder of the first marketing thought leader talent agency, Monumental Shift

23. “Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes, it’s an ad.” – Howard Luck Gossage, founder of Mander, Freeman & Gossage

24. “Content is fire, social media is gasoline.” – Ryan Kahn, founder of The Hired Group

And finally, to put the cherry on top of this feast of marketing quote wisdom (and prove that business brains come in all different shapes and sizes) ….

25. “It will work. I am a marketing genius.” – Paris Hilton

What Are the Best Marketing Quotes You’ve Heard?

These are just a few of the best marketing quotes to keep in mind when trying your hand at marketing with wisdom. Are there any other amazing quotes about marketing that we missed?  If you have any other tips or business wisdom to share, please send it our way in the comments!