Four Traits of Great Marketers
Sheepishly, I might say that no great Marketer should indulge in silly list-making; faced with this conundrum- an article about Marketing, masquerading as a list to generate “clicks,” written by someone who claims to care about the profession — what to do? Read it or ignore it?
In case you succumbed and decided to read it- well, clearly you did as here you are- let me try to offer something of value.
Some years ago, I compiled into book form a series of blogs I had written on topics related to Marketing. I had so much fun doing it once that I decided to repeat the exercise with another set of blogs. Upon rereading both books, I’m happy to find that many of the thoughts, ideas, and admonitions expressed therein have withstood the test of time. No doubt, some of the pieces seem silly and others even unfair but overall, I find that many were decent and a few were, in fact, prescient.
In one such piece, I discussed the need for a “Marketing Ethicist” role in every large organization. With the daily revelations of corporate malfeasance, Big Tech’s sheer mendacity, and- also- completely moronic Marketing released into the wild, it appears that an Ethicist role, with teeth, is not only nice to have but in fact essential. Perhaps Zuckerberg or Bezos should considering hiring one. Oh, by the way, not just for “show” but in fact to put a check on their worse angels. Indeed any possible halo that one could imagine is gone.
Yes, this new role underscores the first trait any great Marketer must have- a sense of inviolable ethical boundaries.
A second article that I believe has withstood the test of time as well as the onslaught of just-too-much Marketing bullshit was titled “The Enduring CPM and It’s Discontents.” In that piece, I argue that no matter the new-fangled jargon of all incarnations of “Performance Marketing” that almost all ROI-marketing is reducible to the CPM. Marketers will argue here- to suggest that the CPM is both King and Queen is heresy — but I maintain my position here. Like many others, I have spent millions upon millions of dollars on advertising, marketing campaigns, and media and not once was the “math” NOT of CPM essence, no matter the garb in which it is dressed. The emperor is in fact naked.
Which brings me to the second trait- respect for mathematics versus fatuous rhetoric.
Taking on the issue of “attribution” in Marketing, I wrote an essay called “Pater Semper Incertus Est” (The father is uncertain.) There I argued that marketing outcomes (a sale, an engagement) are uncertain as to exact provenance because indeed there are multiple factors that lead to an outcome; further, the marketer cannot ever be certain that a particular action or act of spending leads to a particular consummation or endpoint. This flies in the face of the new breed of “scientific” Marketers who flock at once to digital channels and to a myopic ROI-based religion; in their homily, smart Marketers can create a one-to-one correspondence between an action (and dollar spent) and an outcome (or sale.) I had to dispel such arrogant notions.
The third trait flows directly out of that screed- recognition that Marketing has been, is, and will be an imperfect art and not an exact science.
A forth missive to a young Marketer offered the notion that there are 5 types of capital that a Marketer has at his/her disposal. Most Marketers believe that their biggest constraint is financial budget, while neglecting the need to build strength in other areas. In fact, the missive stated, there are many types of capital that one has to array and balance in order to have a chance of non-linear “success.” The undercurrent — there- was that any great Marketer can bring to bear an entire ecosystem to his/her task versus bringing only a dollar to a duel for the attention of the community.
This idea leads directly to the fourth trait- the ability to muster a variety of resources to the delicate art of Marketing.
Yes, these 4 traits are necessary for anyone who aspires to greatness in Marketing. This doesn’t mean that the table stakes can be ignored- reverence for language, understanding of scale and speed, deep knowledge of audience-engagement, intuitive understanding of a brand’s meaning and limitations, adeptness with technology- these are all must-haves. These are required to be given the mantle “competent.”
However, to separate competence from greatness in Marketing requires a set of second-order traits, of which the highlighted four are the most important.
-Romi
P.S. It is undoubtedly easy to cherry-pick the evergreen pieces from my past work; in another article, I’ll discuss my lunatic predictions and errors.
