Strategy

Why Better Marketers Create a Better World


Don’t laugh but I think better marketers create a better world. I’m admittedly a little biased on the subject, as I am a marketer myself. I also teach future marketers at the University of Iowa and help marketers overcome digital media obstacles and build better brands online through my work. I am a marketer and I love surrounding myself with marketers.

Bias aside, I still believe that better marketers create a better world. Why? Because better marketers create better marketing. While marketing is the product of my industry I think it helps all of us. Marketing works to promote profitable exchanges in goods and services across all sectors — from solo entrepreneurs to small businesses, from global corporations to non-profits. All of these organizations require marketing. Of course, not all of them know this but that’s a topic for another day…

The Impact of Better Marketing

Better marketers create better marketing, which in turn yields a better world for several reasons. First, as noted above, effective marketing allows essentially ever kind of organization to grow and prosper. As our communities are made up of a variety of different types of businesses, it’s easy to see how better marketing and marketers create stronger businesses. This adds up to economic growth and innovation at the local level. Scale this up and you’ll quickly see better marketers helping to enhance the global economy and make a better world.

However, effective marketing also creates a more pleasant world. When practiced correctly, marketing aligns products, services, and other offerings with customers’ specific needs. This leads to marketing messages and promotions similarly tailored to a relevant audience. In theory, when marketing is better you shouldn’t be bombarded with irrelevant messages and pointless offers.

Better Marketing Is Closer Than Ever Before

This brings me to my final point. That’s the fact that there’s never been a better time to be in marketing. To some, this is a scary time as the very foundation of how we communicate with customers is being rocked by the disruption of the internet and various forms of social media. (I’ll even admit that using Snapchat makes me feel as confused as Bruce Dern in Nebraska.) However, it’s also an exciting time. The better marketing outlined above that is defined by close, direct relationships with your customers requires a better form of communication and tools. This is exactly what the digital revolution has brought about.

Your customers aren’t miles away, accessible only through focus groups and industry trade shows. Today they’re just a few clicks away on your Facebook page, Twitter profile, or Instagram feed. You don’t have to be schlocky and interrupt the wrong audience anymore. Through today’s marketing tools you can connect with interested people who want to hear from you and build direct relationships that get deeper over time.

These tools make better marketing possible. And yet many are content with their heads in the sand, interrupting the wrong people with their own marketing, while complaining about the commercials during their favorite shows and the advertisements above urinals.

If practiced properly and embracing the new tools of the trade, marketing can be a noble profession. It can even lead to better communities locally and across the globe.

What will you do? Will you help make the world better or continue interrupting people with your head in the sand?

Photo via Flickr user DonkeyHotey