"Marketing must be one of those professions where salaries give you the best bang for buck as an employer."He was saying most marketers aren't all that bright.
I can't say I disagreed with him at the time.
The above quote was delivered to me yesterday at breakfast from a friend who heads up international business development at a company any Australian who reads this blog would be familiar with. I'd just finished telling him how a client had recently said to me "We don't know about that technology stuff, we're just marketers."
When she said "that technology stuff", she meant the Internet.
Give me strength.
I said last week marketing isn't rocket science, and it isn't. Unfortunately it's also almost completely devoid of the courage required to alter the markets these people exist in (As an aside, they say no one is so sanctimonious as a reformed smoker, I wonder if the same can be said for anyone who walks away from jobs in marketing and advertising to something a little less transient?).
Of course the flip side of that is agencies who have those ideas clearly need to get better at articulating the more strategic paths forward, and in order to get there we need to prove we're good for more than just the last campaign. I spoke to someone last night from the company responsible Coke's new bottle debacle and reiterated my point: someone should have been fired for that nonsense.
Regardless, let's forget all that marketing stuff today, go read this fantastic post by Umair Haque, What Apple Knows That Facebook Doesn't. Be warned, it is loaded with "that technology stuff".
*sigh*
Ok, almost 9am, time to give her a call. Serenity now...serenity now...
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