We live in a world where’re constantly bombarded by someone’s attempt at marketing. We cannot walk down the street without seeing storefronts screaming at us. When we drive across town we’re constantly being accosted by billboards. We can’t enjoy our favorite show on television without “product placement.” We can’t even check our social media accounts without ads showing up, popping up, or dropping right into our stream. Marketing is ubiquitous in our modern world. But, really, what is marketing, and why do we encounter it everywhere we go?
Merriam-Webster defines marketing as “the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service” to the consumer. This basic definition has defined marketing throughout the ages; it’s the way it’s always been done.
You can imagine the street vendor in ancient times hawking his fish as the freshest in the seven kingdoms, the smithy in King Arthur’s realm shouting that his special blend of polish will make your suit of armor the shiniest in the court, or the storefront owner in colonial times promising that his magical elixir will keep away demons in the night and freshen your breath at the same time!
It seems that for as long as people have been selling and trading their wares, there has been someone involved in marketing, and it continues to this day. We expect to be accosted by ads. In fact, many of us have become masterful at tuning them out.
Since many consumers have developed a blind spot when it comes to average advertisements, one can argue that, to be successful, today’s business owner must do something different. We’ve got to do something unexpected. We need to be unique if we’re to have any hope of catching that potential customer’s eye.
Traditional marketing involved putting yourself out there, in the hopes that someone would see your ads and realize that they want to make a purchase. However, to be truly successful in today’s crowded marketplace, we’ve got to be able to transcend the traditional street vendor attitude and become our marketing.
To survive in a world where everyone is constantly barraged by ads, we need to do something more than what all the other inspectors are doing. We need must become the living synthesis of our marketing efforts. Everything we do and everything we put out into the world becomes our marketing. The products we offer, the level of service that we provide, and the life that we live in the public eye are all incorporated in our marketing.
The things that others notice about us. What we do and how we do it. This is the new marketing.
We have the opportunity to show clients who we really are through our marketing. We get to decide whether we’re simply making a cash grab or we’re building a business of integrity. Do we push our customers to buy something they don’t really need simply to make more money, or do we design our companies, our careers, and our lives to do what’s best for those clients who put their trust in us?
What if we created something transcendent; something that our clients would still want to be associated with if they knew the true reasons behind our intentions?
Do we stoop to negative marketing: manipulative networking, yelling, screaming, and spamming our way to “success?” Or can we decide to do something that has lasting impact: weaving a story, building a group, or developing a product that can really have a positive impact on someone’s life?
In today’s modern world, every one of our customers has access to social media. They all have the ability to broadcasting their opinions to anyone who’ll listen. Whether it happens by their thumbs or our own, everything that we do has the potential to be broadcast for the whole world to see. Regardless of your intentions, we are always advertising ourselves, our values, and our business.
Being aware of this fact (and taking control of it) can be the most influential thing we do ensure the success of business. We can take control of our business, our life, and our future success. We can be our marketing.
* This post was inspired by a TED talk given by author, entrepreneur, marketer and public speaker Seth Godin. For more info on him and his work, simply Google “Seth”.
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Thanks, Joe
