It’s perhaps a common thing and most people would have already experienced it in their professional lives but as you go up the ladder, all the aspirations that you held to ‘do great things’ start getting sidelined. It’s a sad truth. Your efforts, instead of in work, start getting used up to understand and solve weird issues, handle fragile egos, and deal with the growing numbness in the environment around you.
(Un)fortunately, I am in Marketing. I love it. I live it. I don’t think I can ever do anything else. Maybe some day I would want to write a book, or open a boutique restaurant but for as far as I can imagine, I doubt if any of that will happen soon. Marketing is core to any organization. While most people see it as a money-spending bunch of cool, rebellious guys, those who understand the value of Marketing, appreciate it. You can build a great product, or create a masterpiece software, if you don’t have a strong Marketing channel to make the world aware about it, you might as well put it back in a box and forget about it. Marketing has some basic ‘fundas’ but mostly it’s about staying creative, being tactful and ensuring that you’re highly resourceful. And I strongly feel that while Sales is a tact and Marketing is sheer ‘attitude’. Either you have it or you don’t.
The sad part about this awesome profession is everybody else around you thinks they can do a better job of it. Since it ‘mostly’ requires ‘printing pretty brochures’ and having a fancy stall at events, it gives easy access to all and sundry to claim they can do a better job of it. And since Marketing professionals are all about the right attitude, more often and not, they avoid mud slinging and unnecessary conflicts to counter such perceptions. In fact, we never claim that our ideas are ultimate! They may not be!
You know, I have a very nice Product team in office, and most great ideas are born while talking to them. They do the real ‘brainstorming’ and not ‘brainsquashing’. And you know why that is? Because to birth and nurture a product, they need to be creative as people. Creative in their thoughts, imagination and instincts. And this creativity is backed by craftsmanship and technique. And that’s what creates a great product. And the good thing here is, even if we don’t reach common ground, there are no ego issues and vicious retorts! There is grace in how we interact and I really like it!
Another very common (perceived) confusion is Marketing and Branding. Some people think Marketing gets in business, and Branding is pointless. But the thing is, a Marketing effort, as hard as you may try may not be measurable in parameters of money. It can support/add to Sales, but can it take ownership of it? I have my reservations. How then, do you propose to measure Branding? Yes it’s important to ensure your efforts and bringing in results but you cannot smother it! And when you talk about Marketing and Branding as mixed up, let me tell you, they are like conjoint twins – inseparable yet have very distinctive individual identities. It is beyond my limited, under-developed understanding why people mix up the two all the time!
I was talking to a friend about this and she strongly agreed. The thing is, we are pretty cool as people. And we are emotional. If we were cut throat and shrewd, we would be in another team! And as dramatic as it may sound, if you try killing our creative instinct and horn in everything we do, we get cautious and already start visualizing despicable caricatures of you in our heads. And trust me, it happens all the time.
Marketing is not a craft that you can up-skill yourself to, it’s an art you have the instinct for. Marketing is not mindless, it is about experimenting. Marketing is not politics simply because creativity and politics don’t get along well! Marketing could be your interest, but whether or not you have it in you, c’mon, you should know… It’s as simple as that!
Try this – if you can’t count two people in an organization who even like you, how do you envisage you can win over the world? A Marketing professional may not be unanimously loved, but trust me, he usually is amicable, talks to everybody and has left a good, lasting impression on their minds (and hearts). If you can’t market your own self well, you won’t do a god job marketing anything else. Oh, you could however sell yourself outright by shoving yourself down into people’s head. But that’s not Marketing.
On that note, to a very pissed off morning, here’s wishing you all a great day! 
17 July 1972 – 11 September 2011
21 October 1931. – 14 August 2011
26 September 1923 – 3 December 2011
February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011
14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011
8 September 1969 – 27 November 2011
8 February 1941 – 10 October 2011
5 December 1970 – 20 April 2011
February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011
