I’ve been waiting a few weeks to figure out how I can politely address what may seem like a pet peeve. I’ve finally decided to not be so sensitive and accept that some people will see themselves in the blog post and will need to accept they are less than experts when it comes to marketing.
Wow. What a buildup for what seems to be a simple question: Are you creative or analytical? As I’ve moved into senior global marketing roles, I’ve been asked this repeatedly. Usually by CEOs who I assume are intelligent in aspects of business. I’ve always been polite, in part because it’s usually been in the middle of a job interview when this question is asked. Now it’s time for me to share what’s behind my very polite smile: What an incredibly stupid question!
Yes, there are people in the marketing discipline who lean heavily toward creativity or analytics. However, do you really want to hire one of these people to head your marketing efforts?
Marketing executives, especially in high growth companies, must have a penchant and passion for both. Only working through a “playbook” of marketing tactics neglects great opportunities to engage prospects. For companies with a technology without widespread awareness or adoption, working through a series of marketing tactics because you think that’s how marketing is done, may ensure your solution is never seen by the most qualified prospects or that it’ll take a lot more money to get on their radar.
At the same time, I hate, hate , HATE, “gee whiz marketing.” These are super-cool marketing efforts done solely for the purpose of looking super-cool. Marketing must be done for a purpose. Sometimes this is lead gen, sometimes it’s awareness, sometimes it’s positioning for a liquidity event. One of my earliest professional memories was promoting the Clay Court Championship in Pittsburgh, PA. Our budget was just above USD$ZERO for an event spanning several days and a client willing to try something for the sake of drawing attention to it. What I came up with was a celebrity charity tournament to be held on the first day of the event. In Pittsburgh, “celebrities” were mostly media personalities, or in other words, TV news anchors. As planned, the celebrities that were invited to participate came with camera crews to show how the stations were supporting the community. Each then ran it on the evening news. The result was a measureable increase in attendance both from the previous day and also in comparison to previous years.
Marketing must be a mix of creative new ideas and previous efforts with a proven track record. Both need forecasted results and ROI, and just as important, thorough measurement during and afterward. The measurement also needs to be the right measurement. For example, measuring lead generation on incoming leads is only a portion of what should be happening. Ultimately, lead generation should be graded on how many leads reach the opportunity stage and the percentage of projected revenue in those opportunities. It is also a mistake to assume public relations’ and analyst relations’ efforts cannot be measured. There is always a way to measure. It takes someone who is creative and analytical to develop a metrics that fits the discipline and the company.
So, I ask again: Would you really want to hire someone who doesn’t have a passion for creative marketing to discover new ways to reach prospects, develop solutions and position your brand AND the analytics to continue to improve your (M)ROI?
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