Over on MarketingProfs, Beth Harte recently wrote an article about “The Value of a Marketer.“ Beth starts out the piece by claiming:
“Frankly, it’s just not a fun time to be a marketer. Those who have a job are fearful and waiting for the axe to fall and those without a job are struggling to secure one in a sea of rough competition.”
No offense to Beth, but I couldn’t disagree more. You see, the rationale of the article is that in these economic times, “it’s tough out there right now” for a marketer. But you cannot equate economic uncertainty to mean that an entire industry is unenjoyable and/or faces an uncertain future.
Frankly, I cannot think of a better or more fun time to be a marketer.
Conveniently enough, I was having drinks with Michael Troiano right after I read the MarketingProfs post. When I mentioned my struggle with Beth’s post, Michael reminded me his manifesto on Scalable Intimacy in which he proclaimed:
Let’s face it folks… marketing has become what HR used to be, before somebody figured out we were spending more money on people than on anything else. It’s the place where arty intellectuals can travel, interact with like-minded pretty faces over cocktails, and hide from the accountability that has transformed every other corner of the 21st century corporation. Most marketing people are mediocre. Most marketing is the sexy part of sales without the pesky accountability, and it is worthless. Harsh, perhaps, but you know it’s true.
Michael definitely put it more bluntly than I would have… but he’s so right. Over the past decade, marketing has started to undergo a radical transformation. The days of Mad Men are gone and with it the easy road of a creating a TV spot that made everyone happy. In fact, I would say there has been a direct correlation between the decline of mass media and the increase in marketers needing to put in serious time and effort into creating brilliant brand building.
And in my eyes, that is a good thing.
Marketing is not and never should have been just fun and games. Real marketing is hard work in both good times and bad. It is a job that is about taking insights on your consumer and turning those into brilliant strategies that move more cases.
And for those of us that somehow get a thrill out of this, there is no better time than now to be a marketer. Why? Well consider just a few things:
- More than ever, management needs leadership on how to grow the business: ROI has always been extremely important but never more so than now. If a marketer can show management that their marketing expenses are actually an investment, instead of a cost, than this is the perfect time to make the case.
- Marketing is more dynamic than ever: Marketing has changed more in the past 5 years than in the past 50 years. In this age of Facebook, Twitter, iPhones and any hundreds of other shiny objects, marketers have the chance to lead this change. Marketers have a chance to lead the strategy of how your brands and business will use these new tools to really connect with consumers.
- Consumers are expecting more from us: It wasn’t too long ago that marketers had all the control. If consumers wanted great TV shows, they had no choice but to watch the commercials. After all, there were no remote controls and DVR was just three letters in the alphabet. But that’s changed completely today and as a result, consumers have a choice. And once they have a choice, they are going to start expecting more from us as marketers because they can easily skip us. That challenge is what makes it fun to be a marketer today. We have to find the next Nike+ that goes beyond just shouting at people and instead adds values to their life.
Great marketers live for a challenge and they live for change. Today’s marketing world features both, which means there has never been a more fun time to be a marketer in my eyes.
Now let me end by saying I don’t want to discount the tough times some people are going through because of the economy. Layoffs aren’t a laughing matter. But at the same time, we can’t take the view that the industry is “no fun” because of the current crisis. If anything, these tough economic times present one of the greatest opportunities ever for marketers to show why are jobs can truly build the business.
It is just up to us to be brave enough to seize the opportunity.
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Tags: Employment, Marketing
Marketing is just getting fun! Why would you not want to be a marketer now? Sure, competition is tough, but innovation is at it's peak, and there are new opportunities to leverage on a global platform–the internet!
The age of digital marketing time has come and we love it. We have the tools to be as creative and far reaching as ever. Every dollar spent is measured and accounted for – tied into the ROI. Everything we do here at BGT is defined by how much money we are generating for a client and how much money we are saving for our clients simultaneously- It's unbelievable. With our economic wake up call- never before has such accountability been in demand and easily attainable through technology and the good minds driving it.
And that is the difference between someone who is DOING IT (you) and someone talking about doing it (marketingprof). Those who work on the brands and those runnign the accounts at com planning agenices, ad ag agencies are in the game everyday. They are the ones to turn to and they are the ones who will and can change the game.
As a victim of a recessionary layoff, I am happy the dust was knocked off me and I was forced to re-evaluate. I would not wish this on anyone. But I know this is a great time to be in marketing and this move allows me to participate in a new and more relevant way than before.
Great post ! I fully agree. And I want to add a reason why it's such a great time to be a marketer nowadays.
In difficult times not only marketers HAVE to be open for change, but also the consumers ARE open for new things, new products and new propositions. They are willing to change their habits, to change the way they look at things. Marketers who respond to this, by creating real (new) value propositions encounter a more willing market than ever before. So when all this is over, relevant brands will come out stronger ! 2010 can only be a great year for those who do it right, now.
Fully agree with this great article. Marketeers have to start building believable brandsNo more Sandcastles! While optimizing the brand & customer experiences, following questions can help : How relevant is my message? Are we percieved as an honest brand? Are we really listening to our customers and joining their conversations? A lot of 2.0 applications can help you in this but you first have to fully understand what 2.0 really means and can bring to you. It is not at all about technology! It's a new way of approaching your customers and having an open & honest dialogue with them. If you don't know where to start, just locate your brand advocates and have an open and honest dialogue with them. You will be surprised what you can learn from them about your brand and products… 2010 could be you best year ever!
Dave, I could not agree with you more, but for a different reason: I really equate marketing in the 2000's to operations in the 1960's: at the cusp of radical transformation based on data. Think pre-TPS in the Operations world: our efforts and results will inevitably grow more measurable, and thus more manageable and scalable. What a great time to experiment with the confluence of marketing and measurement!
Well said, Dave. I love your thinking around reframing Marketing as an investment vs. a cost/tax. In this environment the brands that best differentiate and communicate unique benefits are going to win and this is Marketing's responsibility. Emerging new consumer touch points help us do this better and more efficiently. What a great time for Marketing to truly LEAD!
That was a very engaging article. I cannot wait to graduate and become involved in the business of marketing–to make a contribution to the bottom line of a company as a result of improving products to the specifications of customers and developing plans to drive and measure the success of these business plans.
Additionally, I am sure ROI will remain an important factor in the evaluation for success of brand managers down the road. I think my generation is up to the challenge.
Marketing is in the midst of a huge paradigm shift where marketers are mandated to invest the company's money rather than just spend it. This new marketing is going to be much more quantitative but just as creative as you now have to figure out how to create value in your consumer's existing life rather than figure out how best to interrupt them.
Dave, great post! I agree with everything you are saying…having been a marketer through bad economic times twice and having been laid off three times, I can tell you that the fact of the matter is even if you are a marketer that does prove your value (and I'd say I fall into that category), it doesn't necessarily save you from the chopping block. (BTW, how many times have you been laid off?).
Because you got stuck on my post lead in, you inaccurately describe the rationale of my post and fail to mention that it's about these current economic times forcing marketers to prove their value [and suggestions for doing so... http://is.gd/xBIH. If you check out my list and the additional list I left in the comments, you'll see it reflects yours to a certain degree.
The challenge today is that marketing management needs to change too (as in be replaced in some cases). There's a notion that "anyone can be marketer" that has destroyed the credibility of the profession. Management needs to keep up with the times (as you suggest), make sure their teams do as well and understand what makes for a valuable marketer. It's no longer acceptable to sit back, waste money, continue to build silos, bury heads in the sand and play politics (or golf for that matter) because none of those things enhance the customer experience. And I agree with everything Michael says, it's not harsh…it's reality.
So let me ask you this…since you think it's a great time to be a marketer (I agree, again, BTW), how do you convince companies not ready for social media and the changing marketing times to hire marketers who are already there? My point is this, we need to be realistic. Most companies just aren't there and a lot of marketers aren't there either. So, while we "up-to-date" marketers who are enthusiastic about the changes in our industry and embrace them, keep in mind that there are a lot of us on the bench struggling to be hired by marketing executives that haven't learned anything new about marketing since 1992. And that isn't fun…it's totally frustrating. That said, we will all fight the good fight because that's what GREAT marketers do!
Great post, and I totally agree. As a copywriter turned social media dude, I look forward to what the day will throw at me.
I work in a mid-sized, regional ad agency, and I can tell you that for many of the people here, these are really fun times. We get a chance to experiment with the manner of the message. As you know, it used to be the brief was for media that was already picked (print, TV, radio).
Now the brief is for a message, and the media is part of the creative. True, we still have the occasional Print Ad Brief, but they are an endangered species.
What social media has done is make people wonder how to use all media. When the media isn't clear, everyone needs to think a little different. And in a smaller place like ours, we can collaborate a little better (I think).
Social media can be in the conversation, but it doesn't have to be. What is in the conversation is everything. And that's both exciting, and scary, and, if you're up to it, fun.
The times are exciting AND challenging. One thing I see that alarms me, Dave, is the over-reliance on tactics. Data gathering and testing via inexpensive tactics is fine, but those who do so without an eye toward brand strategy are likely to go off track. While many talk today about ROI, I personally find it more exciting to talk about Return on Strategy (ROS.)
Keep up the great work and keep being excited.