Marketing For Non-Marketers

I imagine if you haven’t been selling one thing or another for thirty years, marketing could seem like so much magical thinking. The media reinforces “Marketers as hucksters”. Nothing sells attention better than cardboard characters from Don Draper to Darren Stevens on Betwitched.

There’s a problem. Madison Avenue was never half as glamorous or racy as MadMen, creative departments never as creative as Bosom Buddies and I don’t know anyone who has succeeded in business without really trying. TV, Hollywood and Broadway are thin fantasies.

Reality is what happens when you are doing something else and marketing’s reality is happening now. The something else we are doing is connecting, sharing and doing things ourselves (DIY). My generation, we happy few boomers (lol), is the last generation of passive consumers (and many of us aren't so passive anymore either). I can quote Bewtched because we were raised with “appointment television”. When you only have four channels Bewitched, My Three Sons and even McHale’s Navy become “appointment television” :).

We passively consumed because everything was new and so therefor correct and authoritative. THEY created and we consumed. We always had the ability to run outside and play, and we did when Bewitched or My Three Sons wasn’t on (lol). The world seemed orderly, its rhythm soft, friendly and knowable.

Then Gordon Moore, Intel and the integrated circuit (computers) changed everything. Moore noted his company’s ability to square power from integrated circuits every two years even as the cost of doing so fell through the floor. Moore’s Law changed our daily lives more than Einstein and Hawking. The astounding idea is we are only at the beginning. Moore’s Law isn’t scheduled to slow for years.

What Is Marketing

Marketing is the battle for customer hearts and minds.

 Battle because the world is noisy and crowded. The most valuable currency isn’t money or gold. Attention is the most valuable, nonrenewable currency we marketers fight over. You can’t love a product you don’t know. You can’t tell five friends about a brand you've never experienced.

You can find a more institutional BSchool definition of marketing. You may even find more ethereal definitions, but being the troops in charge of the war for hearts and minds works. This "digital time" we live within thanks to Gordon Moore’s Law speeds marketing up, makes marketing a team sport and marketing is now capable of doing so much more with so much less. Ironically marketing’s tools and processes haven’t changed much.

Marketing’s tools and processes can’t change. The only way to win hearts, minds and advocacy is to tell stories. The core of every marketing story is The Hero’s Journey:

 

If you like the movies you recognize The Hero's Journey. Michael Corleone declines his destiny until events make his "hero journey" manifest and a shoot out in a restaurant seals his fate. Publisher Citizen Kane dies saying the name of his sled. Rick turns to Louis after his selfless transformation and says simply, "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Virtually every good movie uses some heroic journey elements. If you are a fan of Joseph Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces you know all mythic journeys share elements of the hero's journey. 

Practical Myths
Doubt the existence of the hero's journey in our modern, flat, furious and ecommerce powered mobile world? Here is a random carabiner review on REI.com

Great for use with Belaying device I have an ATC and the Grigri 2 and I use it for this two device the diameter is just perfect for the grigri I can slide it all around. Also the design on the gate is really good and I tried everything possible to get the gate not to close properly and the way its design that does not happen. I tried many other auto-locking Carabiner and they have a faulty design that right before it closes the auto design keep the gate from properly closing some times. This Carabiner is also easy to open when you want to. You don't need to go down then twist it very easy however it will not open accidentally. The only downside is that this Biner is a little on the heavy side but worth it for the safety it provides even on long climbs. 

I don't understand much of this review since the closest thing I've come to climbing was rooming with George Mandes at Vassar, but I understand the subtext. This carabiner can save your life. This carabiner is a hero

Easy to pluck a review from such a heroic pastime, but what about something less life threatening. Can we randomly find the Hero's journey anywhere?

No, we can only find the hero's journey where marketers get it, where marketers, brand managers and the other brand keepers know and understand Faith Popcorn's edict, "People don't BUY brands, they JOIN them." 

Here is another product riff from a favorite marketing company (OXO): 

Simply lift the OXO Good Grips Pick Me Up Tea Kettle by its handle and the spout opens automatically! No awkward buttons or levers, just lift and pour! The spout stays in the open position for safe and precise pouring. The soft, non-slip handle is heat-resistant for added safety and contoured to fit your hand. This Kettle is stain resistant and easy to wipe clean. The Kettle has a loud whistle to let you know when your water is ready and has a 1.8-quart capacity.

Lifting is simple. Sprout stays open for "safe and precise" pouring. the handle is "non-slip" and "heat-resistant". The handle "fits your hand".

The Pick Me Up Tea Kettle is heroic, simple, clean and safe. If one knows OXO at all you know that this copy is perfectly aligned with the brand's core values. OXO is about simple, safe and brilliant design making life better.


Marketer's Tools
Marketers use tools and processes to achieve their goals just as designers and programmers use Photoshop and code to achieve theirs. There is a difference. Marketers use tools such as:

• Brand Core Values
• Customer Personas
• Customer Needs (by persona_
• Creation Stories (how did the company and brand get started)
• Content (consistent with everything above)
• Community (listening in a social networked world id as important as creation)
• Campaigns (offers consistent with everything above)
• Conversion and Advocacy 

We judge our progress with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Each campaign is a hero's journey. We face the Call To Adventure. Often, like many mythic heroes, we demur and decline. Finally we take the helm and drive toward the big unknown. There are no characters marketers like more than mentors and helpers. Marketers want guides, helpers and mentors so we can walk new paths with some sense of our ability to face any crisis and challenge. We store up courage, energy and mentors and push firmly away from the dock.

Somewhere out there in a wild sea of conflicting metrics we question ourselves, our team and ability to get home. Many teams break apart on these shores. High performance teams come through the inevitable crisis of confidence more sure of their course, pace and gifts. The journey continues heading toward its incomplete terminus. Incomplete because marketing's heroic journey is never really and finally complete.






Non-marketers can easily learn marketing IF, and this can be a big if, they realize marketing requires the same process discipline they have in whatever it is they do. When I was a Director of Ecommerce I preached and preached about how marketing was as process oriented and intense as programming. Each time I got close to this particular sermon my programming friends and teammates all but laughed. They laughed until asked to create a business plan for a failing piece of of business. After hours of planning, deconstructing, strategy and planning one of my most technical friends turned to me and said, "Wow this marketing stuff is as hard as what I do."

Every journey, even incomplete ones, have a terminus and respite. Returning home, gift of the Gods (or crowdsourced wisdom) firmly in hand we marketers put feet up, look across roiling oceans or jagged mountains and know we will hear the call again. The call to adventure will always be answered since answering such calls is what marketing is and what marketers are.