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The Cult Of Marketing
The main difference between their cult and yours, I would explain, is its size – their cult number in the thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, while yours numbers in the millions. This cult you’re in – I was in once too: the cult of marketing! The salesman is the perfect pawn The congruence between his motivation and that of his company is one: both are devoted to pushing more product or services out the door, both put their heart and soul into furthering the interests of the company. Why? Their compensation is based entirely on commission. The salesman looks at himself in his bathroom mirror and repeats his morning mantra, “You are the best. I can sell ice to an Eskimo. People like me. People want to be like me!” But even as he says these words doubt begins to creep in. “Am I that good? Did that old lady really need the sports version of that car I sold her yesterday? How long can I keep this up? Do people really like me, or do I just think they do, and, if I stop talking long enough, would I see for myself?” His doubts are replaced by the echo from his sales manager’s words, “You guys are the backbone of this company. Without you doing what you do, the production guys have nothing to do. Once they stop, the design department has nothing to improve; the administrative girls have no paper to process. So get out there and do what you do best – sell, damn it, sell!” One could feel the surge of energy in the room as all the salesmen felt the call to action. They were not just selling for themselves; they were selling for their families, their coworkers, for those in the company they had never met, and for their families as well. Likewise, entrepreneurs must play this game. They must view themselves as a product or a brand in order to gain market share. No matter what your particular gift or expertise, you have no choice but to play the marketing game if you are to survive. If you build homes, for instance, your success is not measured by the quality of homes you build but by your ability to manage your client’s expectations. Similarly, dentists, doctors and accountants can no longer build a thriving practice on excellence and hard work – he too must play the marketing game. Such a game nullifies the value of our gift, our passion, intelligence, perseverance, diligence or talent. The owner weakens his position in the market if the level of his direct involvement in the creation of his product or service, outweighs the time he put into its promotion. Talking, rather than doing becomes the key success factor. So the talkers – the ‘players’ if you will, steer The Game in their favour, marginalizing the talents of the truly gifted. We commonly speak about reinventing ourselves. Using the word reinvent in place of repackage is far more than a benign choice in terminology. It reflects an entire world view. It is as if, instead of being single unified beings, we are a bundle of interchangeable traits which could be mixed and matched in any way to suit the demands of the market. The true tragedy of The Game is that our view of others becomes skewed. The marketing cultists preach that we are to see everyone as either potential customers or beware of them as competition or salesmen who wish to sell to us. This skewed vision creates suspicion, and conditions us to automatically seek some ulterior motive in all our interactions – both business and personal. It crowds out authentic relationship, replacing it with associations and alliances which are shallow at best and entirely motivated by self interest. This is the crux of the marketing cult. Wherever the marketer is king, talking a good game, looking good, being likeable, being sexy become the winning traits. Conversely, knowledge, integrity, fortitude, kindness, generosity and graciousness become nothing more than frills, mere anachronisms. They are the traits associated with those on the fringe – the losers, artists, intellectuals, the has-beens. In fact, substance of any kind becomes a burden and an obstacle to progress. It becomes the ballast that holds you down and stifles your creativity while you concoct what you think your client expects. Observe the marketing cult members at a cocktail party: the seasoned pros are all looking exuberant, healthy and successful, staying on message. We appear awkward and nervous, happy to have someone to talk with – even if it means listening to an endless monologue of bombastic self-aggrandizement. Ignorantly, we make the mistake of introducing a topic in an attempt to carry on an authentic conversation. Like throwing a switch, we are met with glazed eyes and uneasy resistance. We have forgotten that success in the marketing jungle is measured by how much fun we are and that if we are perceived as intense, we will receive the kiss of death. You don’t have to get very deep into this cult before you realize that selling is not really a choice; it’s survival. The market is inundated with hustlers who lack any objective, reliable criteria upon which to assess competence; instead, likeability and slickness become their key success criteria. In this way the consumer is unwittingly steered towards the con men and those who cannot sell are simply invisible. Placed in this context, the success of investment banks is easy to understand. In conveying an air of success and competence, their performance becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The well-tailored suit, the perfectly coifed hair and the confident even demeanor all convey success, competence and authority. This then forms the backdrop for what they’re selling – the opportunity to be rich, successful and popular as they appear to be. By the time they actually make their pitch, the potential buyer is already sold. Who is the prospective buyer? Anybody in the room! The ubiquitousness of this game forces us to choose between two options, one more repugnant than the other: The first option is to bite the bullet and attempt to sell. Unfortunately, when it comes to mastering bluff and small talk, we are like fish out of water. Not being natural liars, we are no match for those naturally inclined to embellishment and hyperbole. This puts us between a rock and a hard place. Instead of plying our trade we spend our time going to sales courses in the hope that a few crumbs will fall our way. Those who are not socially skilled have to ally themselves with a rainmaker. To add insult to injury, in the event that they are successful in finding such a hustler, they become the drone, the weaker party in the relationship. It is no surprise then to see that professional firms – management consulting, architects, lawyers – are controlled by the partners who are adept at bringing in the clients. Over time their confidence erodes and sooner or later they fall victim to despair, or some form of narcotization. The entire focus upon making the sale, with next to no thought upon delivering the product, is not sustainable in the long run. The current banking crisis is a prime example of The Game run amuck. The banks sold homeowners on the idea of buying a house with next to no security. They next sold the debt to fund managers and investors. They in turn re-packaged it in combination with other assets and sold it to other investors. Over time the volume of these investments, together with the increasingly creative ways in which they were combined, flooded the market with investments of indeterminable value. The high degree of integration between all the world’s financial markets took what began as a local problem, a number of failed mortgages in the US and allowed it to infect the entire global investment and banking system. Oscar Wilde defined the cynic as someone who knew the price of everything but the value of nothing. That would make us a society of cynics. If anything good does come out of this crisis it will be that we have been woken, albeit rudely, from our collective trance. Hopefully we can return to those things of sustaining value – kindness, graciousness, sincerity – and in so doing come to see ourselves as something more than consumers and producers bitterly struggling with one another for our place in the sun. If you want to leave the cult of marketing and refocus your efforts on what you are gifted to do, then let me share more with you about how The Game is played and how you can reclaim your life. In my book series on, The Hidden Game, I reveal the tactics and motivations of society’s ‘Players’ and how they operate. My goal is to give you the leverage you need to not only out-smart the Players, but to play – and win. My passion is a call-to-arms to every thinking man and woman to free themselves from the yoke of The Hidden Game Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com John Berling Hardy is President of a management consulting company, Eminence Gris, and offers financial services as President of Hardy & Co. After decades of watching the hidden game played out in both corporate and social arenas, John could no longer keep silent. Learn how he has blown the whistle on those who dominate and destroy hard-working, honest men and women through his books and blog: www.playingtheplayers.com/ |
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