When I grow up, I want to be a Marketer

..said no kids ever.

What’s wrong with that?

What’s wrong being a Marketer?

One day my significant other asked me, “Why did you take a degree in Marketing?”

A stark simple question, I knew the answer years go, but I couldn't to articulate it on the fly when I got shot with the question at point blank. 

Then the next shot comes, “..and you don’t even make advertisement.”

I lost it. I hate it when people equates Marketing with Advertising. There’s so much more than that. You need to do a consumer study, market study, product development, do quality benchmark, make sure the price is right, consult the god of prosperity when is the best time to do the launch, recruiting, then training, then you do advertising, then you crack your head for distribution, then you need to order a hit to your competitor, then you need to solve legal issue, then it goes on. Advertising is just a small part of Marketing (although it is one of the more fun part of the whole chain). Watching Mad Men does not make you know Marketing. Just like I do not build ships and raid villages after watching Vikings in History Channel. 

I also hate it when I hear fellow Marketers say things like “Marketing is a mix of art and science.” It is not wrong, but it is just a blind textbook repetition, and it is grossly misleading. Marketing is more than that. It is a mix of art, science, psychology, design, statistics, testing, selling, finance, risk management, logistics, history, culture, everything! It is a fabric of the universe (okay, I’m pushing it too far).

The blow continues, “Why, out of all honest jobs out there, must you lie to people and cheat them?”

What? Don Draper is a drunk, and suddenly I am a crook?! That escalated quickly. Must someone lie in order to work in Marketing? Sure, sometime you can sell better if your are loud in telling good things, hide the bad facts, and hide the ugly truth; but it will not get you far, and the people who do these things are Marauder, not Marketer, and you shall never compare the two together.

How about a cook who does not wash his hands, crooked lawyer, ignorant doctor, abusive teacher, extremist religion leader? Noble jobs, sure, but do all people behave equally?

If you have time, read ‘All Marketers are Liars’ by Seth Godin. He is not my favorite, but this book is not half bad. I’m not going to spoil it for you and rob the joy of reading from you, but long story short: Some of us do, some of us don’t, but we cannot do it better than the Sales people (dear cousin Sales, somebody will get the spanking, but it ain’t gonna be us). Just remember, sometime the buyer is guilty of the same charge too. 

Coming back to the first question, I gathered my thoughts, and go back to the fundamentals, which is the question of “Why do we need Marketing?” 

My answer is, “because Marketing moves the world.” Great product don’t always sell themselves. Everything needs to be sold at one point of time. When people say “We don’t do Marketing, we use word of mouth”, well, I hate to break the news to them that it is a form Marketing Tactic. Nothing happened for no reason. 

If it was not because of Marketing, there will be no consumer rights to protect you from abusive sellers.

Without Marketing, there will be not enough demand to advance our technology. 

If it was not because of Marketing, half of the world will not be vaccinated, and in results, more than half of the world will be dying of a preventable diseases.  

Without Marketing, there will be nothing remarkable in this world.