In this era there are trained marketing experts and there are streetwise marketing specialists. But hopeful and successful ones have some typical characteristics.
People watchers
They have the ability to watch folks to find out how they live their lives, how they shop, how they use products or what sort of problems they experience. A marketing expert is a problem solver looking to find new answers to new and old issues and she needs to be intrigued by folks. That’s where concept generation comes from. And let’s come clean, if folk don’t fascinate you how are you going to come up with solutions for those that will eventually splash the money to purchase your product?
Experimenters
Marketing pros are experimenters. They like to take on tiny projects to see how people will react to their products. The famous soft drinks brand in England, Innocent, famously served samples of their drinks on a market stall and asked people if they might buy the drinks in the shops. The rest is history.
Business Plan in the head
A marketer has a business outline in her head. She knows the cost price, expected retail price and volume needed to make a business or product work.
Does Research
Once the marketing expert gets a feel for the market with real life folks, she examines the bigger picture and does industry research. She looks to see if the market is big enough. She looks at the market sizes and the market volume; she investigates distribution and sales channels.
Cross Industry Fertilisation
The marketer takes successful initiatives from other industries and fertilises them into her industry. When launching the perfume CK One, the Calvin Klein marketing director famously invited all his staff into a meeting and asked them to empty their purses and wallets. He found receipts for music retailers and other non-typical perfume retailers and told the sales team to start opening up retail distribution agreements with these outlets rather than the ordinary sales channels.
Pessimistic by nature
The marketing pro is a practical and is pessimistic fundamentally. She’s not a dreamer unlike many inventors. Being dismal by nature lets her plan for each eventuality and the business catalyst for internal support is to under sell and over deliver to her backers.
Has a plan
The marketeer has a plan and a budget and works to it industriously. The plan is her torch to lead her and the business forward.
Doesn’t give up
The marketer doesn’t give up easily. Her vision guides her through trouble and she knows she’s in this for the long haul.
Looks for Counsel
The marketer seeks counsel from a boardroom of trusted consultants. She works closely with her sales force and inspires them. She trusts her accountant to help deciphers margin and pricing issues and in helping to make a case for the intangible nature of growing brand awareness to the board of directors.
Has Fun
The marketeer also has fun. Business is serious stuff but she should let off steam and have fun with her team.
Having worked with lots of promoters in the past 20 years these are the characteristics I’ve found inherent in the successful ones.
Molly Jamieson writes for Adobe Business Catalyst partner Platonik. They have examples of web stores built using Adobe Business Catalyst.
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