Over the years, we’ve defined and re-defined marketing endless times. Marketing is social media. Marketing is PR. Marketing is how you promote yourself. Marketing is generating leads. Marketing is making things look pretty. Marketing is almost… everything. The worst part? We’ve found a way of giving it a negative connotation. As if marketing was a “bad” thing we should be “watching out” for. How many times have you looked at some sort of marketing message and felt guilty of wanting to try it, or wanting to explore it further? Personally, I think we should all be a little nicer to marketing. My opinion may be biased, but hear me out.
Marketers take on different hats. Have you ever tried drafting a marketing job description? You’ll see your list of bullet points quickly fill up and that is just the reality of the field. We are the creators, the researchers, the critics, the influencers, the head hunters, the sales funnel, the communicators, the strategists, and the list goes on. So - what does that have to do with feeling guilty about an advertisement?
When you have so many roles to play and you have all this knowledge to share, it becomes almost natural to promote your brand, even when you don’t realize it. Your creativity is overflowing so you want to create a visually attractive ad. You love challenges so you want to see how many people you can reach by trying different strategies and ideas. You see your brand hurting so you find fun, innovative ways to fix it. We are here to show the world the potential of the brand - but we cannot guarantee it is exactly what you are looking for. We set the mood, but the conversation is up to you. So why does our work get the bad rep?
Most of the time, what marketers do has nothing to do with getting you to make a purchase. Our performance is determined by our ability to communicate what the brand stands for and what it aims to accomplish - and if we are able to match the right audience to our product or service, it means we have succeeded in getting the message across to the right people, which is incredibly impressive. We just want to see our work out there, and observe how people react to it. An initiative that doesn’t get any engagement means just as much as the one that does. It pushes us to tweak our methods to make sure we are speaking to an interested audience. We are constantly being judged, and always the first to blame. We are expected to deliver results, but are criticized for achieving our goals. If you like our work and you decide to try a certain product or service - we just helped you find what you needed, so is that a bad thing? What happens after, is all about the fit. Every person is different and there’s enough to go for everyone. Marketers help you get closer to find what you’re looking for. That’s it. That’s really all we do.
Next time you think about being “fooled” by marketing, just think about the work and effort that was put into the message, the possibilities that hide behind, and take a step further to speak to someone and get the information. Our job, as marketers, ends when you have made the call (or filled out the form). Whatever happens next is a question of whether you are truly a match or not.
To put it simply, think about marketing as the cute girl or guy you see at the coffee shop that you’d like to ask out. You are attracted to her or him because she or he is YOUR type. However, once you start talking to that person - it’s all about compatibility. So if you don’t get along… Does that mean they fooled you?