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My awakening to the big bangs and what I did next “Define what marketing is”
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“We need to do more marketing!”
Okay…as I finished developing our future podcast’s premise and reviewing customer interview transcripts. So is this not marketing?
We had just launched a SaaS product and our leader kept pressing:
“We need to keep sharing our product on social. Why haven’t we posted today!?”
Oh…that’s what you mean when you say “marketing.”
You mean (unwanted) promotion?
Before this, if you had asked me the definition of marketing, I would have scoffed that it doesn’t matter. Purely semantics. It’s not.
If your team (or company) can’t align around a definition of marketing (and update it together), your marketing will struggle. Especially if it’s the leader who’s definition needs updating.
I have three degrees. Two Associates and one Bachelors. My first degree was an Associates in Liberal Arts. The next two are relevant for our discussion:
My second degree was an Associates in Digital Media Technology (DMT). DMT, not the drug, is video, audio, and graphics (or photography). While learning the ins and outs of recording and editing videos, I noticed something:
My classmates had amazing ideas for YouTube channels, short videos, and streaming channels.
Yet none of them were successful (I’m not either). The program was fun and cool, but the principles it taught were useless. That’s likely cause none of the instructors ACTUALLY did contemporary work. One was a radio host, another was doing old school video, and the other was likely dealing drugs to students.
It was in this moment I realized there was more to media than simply making it. We needed to distribute it. What’s that called? Marketing? I want to know more!
This was the same time I got my first marketing internship which turned into a 5 year gig (where we launched the SaaS product). I realized that getting attention on the media was more rewarding and a hidden gift of mine.
After 2-3 years of working full time, I went for my Bachelors in Business Administration. The experience wasn’t much different, sadly.
I would start my day at work, go to college for a few classes, and then finish my evening working. It was like a sandwich, yet I found the meat inside (college) was stale and leaving me hungry. The things I learned in college paled in comparison to the things I would.
Marketing for my professors and marketing for me were two different things.
One baked in archaic theory vs another steamed in daily actions of getting attention.