I have met many professionals specifically marketeers, who have basic thumb rules to keep them going, keep them engaged and motivated for the most part of their work.
Some would proclaim ’till the time the number of good days at work is more than the bad days, they are doing well’.
Some others would say, they are bloody good at what they do and that’s why their organisation has entrusted them with a multi-million brand business.
Still others would say they were first benchers in their alma maters, maintained very standards of acads. They have always been sharp, as a result of which they ask super incisive questions and that’s what has helped them stay at the top of their game for so long.
As a marketeer, for quite some time now, here is what I think about it.
- Marketing, managing a brand, or managing a product/category is not an entitlement that one can really owe to their sharpness, acads, or incisiveness. It’s merely an opportunity that is a function of ones’ good fortune, willing to start every day like a rookie, being humble, willingness to respect opinions across the table, fight hard and hug harder, and a little noise surrounding all of it. if ever it feels like an entitlement, its not gonna last long.
- If you have always asked questions, then in all probability either you are a consultant, or your were born a CEO or you were born with silver spoon of business to inherit the day you started to walk on twos. Asking questions is easy, I have read a lot of management bibles (not that I don’t respect them) where asking 5 Why’s takes you to the root of the problem. Remember 2 things always.
- When you are asking the why’s; you are pretending to be smart, someone else has to do all the answering
- In most case it doesn’t take 5 W’s to know the root cause. It just 1st or the 2nd W.
A marketeer inevitably ends up answering all the time. So when you are in it, be kind to the people who ask you those tough 5W questions, forgive them. For they probably will never have it them to stand up and take those 5 Ws in the face of looking extremely silly.
3. ‘Marketing is simple’. Ain’t it? Hell no. What’s easy is throwing ideas left, right, and centre. What’s really complex is executing those ideas. An execution can be nerve wrecking, bone shattering experience.
It’s akin saying – a minute ain’t much. Well pitch this question to someone trying to earn his last minute on a treadmill. That’s the importance of minute, as hard as execution probably harder. So, if someone says marketing is easy ask them when was last that they did something significant which is other than getting awarded for a fabulous idea or writing a paper which either gave no results or never saw the light of the day.
Execution is tough, may be pulling the incredible even and so is marketing.
4. I get awarded almost every quarter for something really amazing that I keep doing. I am so fertile and so agile. Forget it. You are actually not achieving anything substantial. All that you are doing is earning desk fillers to deck up your CV.
Marketeers, if lucky, worth their salt, and diligent will at best have 2 or 3 real big achievements in their entire career. That’s probably true of any other profession. You will probably have 1 or 2 highs in a year which will all be a team effort. If you thought, you pulled it alone, you are day dreaming. Think of the agency who toiled along side you, the finance guy who released the PO in time, the marcom lady who was kind enough to ask one question less and your boss who was brave enough to let you go off from one insignificant meeting.
5. Keeping your chin up when you really sweating down to your pants, looking silly when questioned stripped down to bare bones by a table full of CXOs with an overall intellect and weighted summed experience of probably more than a century. And you really don’t have anything to offer except for a few slides, wide smile, and plans A, B, and C all of which together aren’t adding up to what you have just committed.
In God you trust, in your boss do you confide, and have heart to keep taking Mr. Murphy on day in day out. You will survive today with head held high and smile on your face when you end up home at the end of the day, to see the light tomorrow.
If you can earn respect from just a few post going through all this. You have just experienced some serious marketing sweetheart!
Disclaimer(s):
1. By no means does this denigrate any other profession, they are all amazing. These are mere experiences some true, some made up, some exaggerated.
2. This piece comes immediately post a ‘Runner’s high’. So if you cannot make sense out of a few things, it’s okay. It’s supposed to be that way.
3. Lolz.
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