Anything you can do, I can do better…

I work in marketing. It’s what I do. A long time ago, I realized that I’m pretty good at “reading” people, figuring out what motivates them, and being able to focus that understanding toward promoting a product or idea. Ultimately, that’s what marketing is. And as such, a lot of it is a very “soft science.”

Certain jobs have very specific skill sets that separate them from most people’s abilities and understanding. For example, no one has ever accused me of being a chemical engineer, surgeon, or web developer. They’re not skills I have or could even remotely claim to. But everyone seems to think that they understand marketing.

Here’s an example: I did some consulting for a small start-up company. They brought me in to do some light marketing (i.e. we’re not hiring a full time person, but we need something …). Then they present me with a specific task and stated goal. So far so good. I then proceed to prepare a campaign that meets the goal with the best possible return and using the given budget (which, as always, is next to nothing …).

Upon reviewing this plan, the CEO decides that he knows better than I how to do marketing. He’s never worked in marketing, never in the industry that we’re in, but suddenly he’s explaining how to market his product to me.

This same CEO fawns over his designer and project manager, because he knows he doesn’t have the technical knowledge to do their jobs. But since you don’t need to know Dreamweaver or Photoshop to do marketing, he feels comfortable telling me how to do mine. The knowledge and experience I bring to the table is somehow meaningless and irrelevant.

So, since the CEO calls the shots, we go with his idea. It fails miserably. This, of course, is my fault — failed execution. Upon later reflection, he reconsiders and goes with my idea. It works very well …

Somewhere along the line, marketing became bastardized from its true form. True marketing uses precise metrics and analytics (along with creativity!) to create a desired result. It’s not just about spending gobs of money on t-shirts, parties, and advertising. But those who hold the purse strings seem to think it is, and it does a huge disservice to the rest of us.