We’re more useful as consumers than we are as marketers
Of late, many great people have written many great things about the great amount of respect that professional marketers need to have for the world around them. The message is clear: create things and relationships that are useful, well-liked and aim to make life better. A sloppy approach is inexcusable.
But, equally, there’s been much talk about how the marketing function is losing power. Thanks in large part to technology, “the people” are taking back any control that organisations and their marketing departments might have had over their reputations, and even the DNA of their products/services. It’s now more clear than ever that “having exclusive ownership over your brand” is a contradiction in terms – people will think, say and do what they like.
And it’s this last point that has led me to the following conclusion:
We have more power to enact positive change as consumers who happen to be professional marketers than we do as professional marketers who happen to be consumers.
As professional marketers, we have specific tasks to perform, people to answer to and objectives to meet. These are somewhat limited by the remit, scale and scope of our roles in the organisations that we work for.
However, as consumers, we have interactions with a large and varied array of organisations. Further, these are not organisations to whom we are in any way answerable. On the contrary, they are answerable to us.
Now, I’m not suggesting that this is an “either/or”. Of course we should continue to strive for a better marketing in our professional lives.
What I am suggesting though is that, as consumers, we should seek out more opportunities to proactively make things better, i.e. by becoming ‘constructive consumers’.
Constructive consumers don’t moan and shout FAIL when things go wrong. Constructive consumers take the opportunity to suggest improvements to the organisations who’ve let them down and lead by example based on a general philosophy of making things better.
We know what good marketing looks like. Let’s make sure we’re actively promoting it in our personal lives where, arguably, we have greater influence over the outcome.
Thought starter: What if, as well as your achievements as a professional marketer, your CV also featured ideas that you’d had as a consumer and convinced an organisation to make happen?
Interesting.
There’s a fundamental point that we’re assuming people buy into here – the fact that people ultimately believe in the brands and corporations that they consume as opposed to purchasing them because of ‘necessity’ and the fact that they want to help with the current political problems. (I’m sure Bernays would have a discussion around the ‘need’ issue…)
Some people like to shout FAIL because it’s an apparent punch in the balls for the megacorps that benefit from so many of our choices. There are lots of brands vying for our attention and people choose the ones that add value to their lives.
There are a lot of people that see the predicament we’re currently in not as a short term blip but as the perfect opportunity to highlight an ever incerasingly creaking political ideal. Far from wanting to help corporations they actively want to see some of them go under. Natural selection?
Our job as marketers is to respect this viewpoint on behalf of our brands, and try and let consumers know that we are of value in their lives, but not to be pious about it. It’s their choice whether they buy into our ideals or not.
Smart thought Nick. Constructive consumerism as generosity…not so much to the corporations you help, but to the future consumers who benefit from your insight.
The question this post forces you to answer is…why do you work in marketing…to make stuff better or to make your clients (and yourself) richer? For those of us who are more driven by the former than the latter, the private/professional divide should hardly exist and we should seek every opportunity to inform and improve the things around us. And the more we do it, the happier we will be I reckon.
@ Mark – thanks for your words. Totally with you when you say “people choose the ones [brands] that add value to their lives” and that we should “not be pious about it” – noone’s perfect. However, I think that shouting FAIL and stopping there is lazy and unconstructive if, and only if, you’re a proponent of ‘better marketing’ (a broad term that for me combines permission, relevancy, utility, openness and being nice) in your professional life.
@ Matt – thanks for adding so much to my post with your comment; in particular, this line: “Constructive consumerism as generosity…not so much to the corporations you help, but to the future consumers who benefit from your insight.” – Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Very well written and something I have experienced time and again.
Ideally, Marketers have think like consumers. Why is it not happening is a much bigger question.
I do not know much about the Western Markets.I think an MBA with specialisation in Marketing automatically helps a person get the exalted status of a Marketer here in India. Out of the many only a handful could qualify as the kind of marketers defined above. The reasons are as follows:
Their exposure to the ‘outside world’ extends beyond their area of interest
They have travelled widely not only on work but otherwise
They dare to experiment and are not afraid of failure
They decide to unlearn the day they leave B-Schools.
Lastly like anything in the world, the best in any field are the ones who are most passionate and with a great deal of empathy with the world around them. They are also the most successful.