Being in the job market currently, I am increasingly frustrated by corporate America's complete misunderstanding of what it is I do. I have lived with the fact that I can't explain my job to my parents or friends outside of the industries I have worked in over the last twenty years... but!
Even at my last job, with a twenty year old organization, and where I had specifically raised the question at the interview, the mystery of "marketing" was a consistent thorn in everybody's side. Is it sales, marketing, promotions, business development..? Apparently, all the above. But is it?
According to Merriam Webster, the term "marketing" has been in use since at least 1591. But even their definition is a little noncommittal.
Definition of MARKETING
1
a : the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market b : the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service
2
: an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer
There's that "selling" word again. In the case of the first definition above I believe they are referring to an activity which, in various parts of this country, and in several time periods, was an accepatable description. People referred to a trip to the grocery store as "doing the marketing". Presumably a reference to a long disappeared "market".
As my sage ex-business partner recently pointed out, commenting on the same frustration, people who advertise for Sales and Marketing professionals deserve neither.
One really doesn't want a Sales Professional involved in Marketing and vice versa. No wonder western economies are tanking.
This current job posting, listed under "marketing", says it all.
"I need a marketing person to help build my agency. You would need to be able to make cold calls, and speak with prospective clients about bringing their insurance needs to our office."
No... you really don't!! What you need is a Sales Person.
Good sales professionals are amazing, and I have worked with many. They can open doors, speak to just about anyone, know the scientific techniques of closing, dealing with objections, empathy, the 1000 - 100 -10 -1 rule, etc. Visited a car lot recently?
A good marketing professional can tell you where your prospective clients are, what "speaks to them", what your brand should say about your business and how it should be personified in your marketing materials and your "public face", and how to connect with people who are looking for that experience etc, etc. But don't ask them to make cold calls... please.
To liken it to drama... which it often is, the author or playwright is the product, the words, situation and characters, the Marketing Department is the Director, interpreting the piece to match public sensibilities and break new ground, the sales people are the actors, out there bringing the promise to life and ... well... selling it!! When the leading actor gets sick, the Director who goes on in their place does so at their peril.
Why did this come to pass? In England I always had a feeling that admitting you were in "sales" was something that had been the object of so much negative attention that the profession, for such it is, was ashamed of themselves. Decades of portrayals of sales people as oily types with cookie cutter "rep" cars, and persistent, "leave me alone" attitudes in sit-coms and other popular culture vehicles, had denigrated the job so much that many started to look for other ways to describe their vocation.
I worked in an agency and that sector had long borrowed the American lexicon to describe our roles. I was an "Account Executive". Not, as the name might imply, a senior management position, but actually the entry level "sales" slot. I knew I was in sales. I was judged by my numbers and incentivised by performance. And soon everyone was ditching their "sales" monikers for more glamorous business cards. Soon the guy next door at the Hi-Fi store wasn't a salesman... no, no... he was a "Customer Consultant".
When I moved to the US in the early '90's I caught the back end of a culture that valued Sales Professionals. People weren't ashamed to say they were in sales and making money was a good thing. But gradually the Sales take-over of the "Marketing" identity began. At the multi-national hotel chain which was my first client over here, the Marketing Department concerned themselves with pricing and demand and impact studies. They didn't have anything to do with brochures and flyers and signs and advertising. That was the job of the Marketing "Communications" Department.
But now everyone is a "Marketer". I moved into a prosperous sub-division and on meeting our neighbors found that the woman opposite us, who owned a t-shirt and trinket business. The type that will print your company logo on a 3c key chain and sell it you for $2.50, described her business as a Marketing Agency! I should have known then.
I am proud of my profession. But doubt whether it will last as a discreet discipline for much longer. I seem to have chosen unwisely across the board. When I trained as a graphic artist in the '80's I did it just before Apple launched their first Macintosh on an unsuspecting world. Cut and Paste meant just that. I had a scalpel and some glue... and scars on my thumbs to prove how vital a good metal ruler was. Now any 4 year old with a laptop is a "designer". Just like any idiot with a 4 megapixel cellphone camera is a photo-journalist and any spotty teenager with Guitar Hero on their X-Box is Jimmy Page. But are they? Is it just the Luddite in me, railing against the machines? I am now an expert in computer design, even though that's not my chosen profession any more... just how I make money sometimes. But even I know there is no substitute for a creative mind. Sometimes I have, and sometimes I don't. Having a MacBook Pro with Adobe CS5 can't make up for lack of design skills.
Being a Marketer, and knowing the "the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.." and "moving goods from producer to consumer", it seems that perhaps the 'good' that I can't move to market is myself. Perhaps because the world has passed me by, or maybe because the market for marketers just isn't there anymore.
__________________________
And... never to let an opportunity go by. Check out my latest venture, online travel TV at www.newmexicovideo.com. Its all about SEO baby!!
No comments:
Post a Comment