Marketing Isn't a Battle for Attention but a Practice in Fulfilling Expectations
We often use this visual model with both students and clients because there are still many misunderstandings about what marketing actually is. To begin with, the word marketing itself is problematic. It dates back to the first half of the 20th century, when business thinkers like Philip Kotler and Peter Drucker were trying to understand how to "get the market." In more recent times, someone like Seth Godin has even suggested we need a different term—something closer to markgiving—a way of asking: what value are you contributing.
For a powerful example, look no further than Steve Jobs' famous comeback speech at Apple. When introducing the legendary Think Different campaign, he reminded everyone: "Marketing is about values." That message had nothing to do with pushing products—it was about celebrating people who added meaningful value to the world.
Today, unfortunately, marketing is often associated with selling as many products as possible, regardless of whether those products actually improve people's lives. But that's never what marketing was supposed to be. At its core, marketing is about carefully thinking through why you make something, how you develop it, what price makes sense, and how it will truly reach people. Sadly, most of this has been stripped away, leaving only promotion.
Ironically, in North America, students and clients often say marketing when they actually mean promotion. But this is a huge oversimplification. Salespeople try to sell more; marketers are meant to think strategically—about long-term value, innovation, and how to create a sustainable competitive advantage.
This same mistake is common in city marketing and tourism marketing. People often reduce these complex practices to promotional campaigns. That's exactly why we use the Marketing Infinity Loop: to show how it should work.
At the heart of the loop is this: development and promotion are inseparable. You can only promote what is meaningfully developed into a memorable experience. And you should only develop those things that will be promotable—because they offer real value to your destination, product, or service.
The goal is to emotionally charge a place (a site, a trail, a museum, a city) so that it creates a meaningful experience for visitors. If that works—if visitors are surprised, moved, or inspired—they will do the marketing for you. They will tell others, share their stories, and build your reputation.
We call it an infinity loop because it's never finished. Take tourism, for example: you have to constantly adapt your offering, because both visitor needs and resident expectations change over time. If your residents begin to feel that there are "too many tourists," you need to ask whether promotion still makes sense—or whether your focus should shift to improving the local experience or redirecting visitors to lesser-known areas.
Ultimately, marketing is nothing more than managing expectations. The reason famous monuments and popular places often disappoint is because the expectations are simply too high. Think of the Piazza San Marco in Venice: it will never live up to the postcard image with golden light, fluttering doves, and no crowds.
This is exactly why lesser-known places—places that actually need visitor attention and income—have a huge opportunity. Where the promise is small, wonder can be great and when people are positively surprised, they talk. That's marketing
If you look at place marketing through the lens of reputation, then the future doesn't lie in the old model of supply and demand, but in one of expectation and fulfillment.
And if I had to summarise the Marketing Infinity Loop in just two words: honesty pays.
- FRANK CUYPERS