Roustam Tariko Quotes

What our profession is all about is interacting with people.

I don't know marketing... clearly in engineering school you don't get much marketing training.

Most of the major consumer-goods companies roll out their marketing programs in the I-4 corridor. It reflects what America looks like.

No one in my family had a retail or marketing background. They were professionals. They didn't understand just what I was doing by going into retailing. After I started, though, it got into my blood. I knew this was what I wanted.

And what we did with this new company in 1985 is we did start focusing on PCs instead of video game machines, because we learned the hard lesson about bringing a product to market in a consumer world where it's very expensive to build a brand and get distribution and so forth.

Most of my career has been in sales. I spend 50% or more of my time with customers and employees, and I can't wait for it to be more than 50%.

Actually, I majored in marketing and I have a bachelor of science.

I learned marketing at my dinner table.

I always loved retail. I love the ideas behind it. I think small-business retail is one of the areas where capitalism works so wonderfully well.

The consumer is the absolute king in everything you do.

You handle animals. You deal with people.

Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your return policy.

One of the people who most influenced me was Ben Shapiro, a marketing professor at the business school. He used to rant and rave and pound his fist: 'It's all about the customers!' And he was right. He was also right that, at that time, retailing was devoid of really talented people; he urged me to go in that direction.

I knew nothing about sales, marketing or how to run a company. Nor did I have a desire to do any of those things.

In America, they never make anything without first having a market survey to ask the public what they want. People only ask for things they already know about, so you don't get anything new that way. That's why American fashion is stuck.

I've sold everything from fashion, make-up, couture magazines, radio, reality television, movies. There isn't a thing I haven't sold, including Tampax. You name it.

I saw these new kinds of stores: the Body Shop, the Sock Shop, and I thought to myself, 'I can do that.'

Every single thing I learned about marketing and building my business, I learned from my mom, and she had never been in the workforce. She just had great practical sense.

I had a great time being a salesman because of the pitches that I gave when I was selling shoes. However, I don't think I'm as well versed in shoes as I am in comedy. Being a salesman was all about being a people person, and I enjoy being around people. I also love talking to people - which is why I think I did so well.

There are a lot of people who touch the customer.

I meet the designers very often, we discuss the products, they show me their ideas, we discuss the ad campaigns and every new invention that we can find for the future.

I have always said that everyone is in sales. Maybe you don't hold the title of salesperson, but if the business you are in requires you to deal with people, you, my friend, are in sales.

In a business, you have a vision, and you follow the vision. You have to execute. And then you have to learn how to run a good business. And I think if you look at the characteristics of any successful fashion business, it's all about that.

Women have an instinct for what the market is. We have tremendous insight in terms of understanding products and consumerism.

Marketing is the obverse of programming.