260. Is Marketing Actually Intuition?
As someone who’s worked in marketing for quite a while, hopefully I have a somewhat eloquent opinion on this.
The more that I discovered marketing theory, the more that I realized it’s quite intuitive. Sure there are stats and figures, but the true winners in marketing are those who can get into a client’s head. On top of that, they can somewhat predict the trends of the future. Although there’s somewhat of a patterned formula to this, you never really know how a client is going to react when they see a particular product or campaign. In some ways, you’re the persuasive force of their consideration to buy.
One of the biggest things you have to consider in marketing is storytelling. How does your particular brand tell a story. First, you certainly have to/want to come off authentic. Authenticity is one of the biggest carriers of resonation, which is a very spiritual thing. The stories themselves are quite interesting, because it goes beyond resonation. It’s often times even more than just safety and security. Now with a world of millions of products, how do you reach your particular client, when many of them do the same thing? It’s expressing your story in a way that hits your client. Often times brands will illicit memories and feelings of nostalgia to connect to their clients. Again, another very spiritual thing.
I wonder sometimes if shopping addiction is more than just products to fill the hole. I wonder if it’s brand stories which are aspirational. It’s true that things may equal happiness, but I wonder if we consider what exactly we’re buying to see what the truth is. I know for sure that when I really want to buy, there are only certain brands I do it from. These are typically aspirational. The models that I see on the page, is the person I’d like to be myself. Maybe this entire practice isn’t so great for our self-esteem, as we know many young girls compare themselves to models, but maybe we need products for inspiration. Who knows? If commercialism didn’t exist, would we have the breadth of art that we do? Or the specific type that we do? Maybe it’s to our detriment, but it’s interesting to think about.
Marketing really is just getting into the mind of the client. It could exist on psychic ability. But what’s interesting is the other component which is to drive change. And the exact equation of the two and how they interact. Who is driving what? Is the collective driving marketing, or is marketing driving the collective? Maybe it’s a chicken or the egg type of situation.
