For anyone who knows my work history, you know that I spent many years in the traditional marketing world. It's only been since my switch to social media marketing two years ago that I've fully realized a dirty little secret about myself: I was an arrogant marketer. As I look back, I know I'm guilty of these five traits of an arrogant marketer:
- Arrogant marketers assume consumers are interested in their products or services.
- Arrogant marketers assume consumers care about whatever they have to say.
- Arrogant marketers don't care that they completely interrupt people's lives.
- Arrogant marketers tell consumers their product or service is the best even when they know it isn't.
- Arrogant marketers are willing to sit back while bad marketing ideas are discussed and ineffective campaigns are created. They know better but remain silent.
I'm guilty of all of these.
Why this post? Why now?
I've been chewing on this post for a long time and feel like it's time to finally write it because I recognized the arrogance in my own marketing approach and I believe other marketers are guilty as well. I don't hope to convince you if you're guilty of arrogant marketing. I only hope you'll realize yourself if you are. My desire is that this post will challenge at least one marketer, PR pro, business owner, or organizational influencer to reconsider why he or she approaches marketing the way they do.
I should probably give a few disclaimers here too. First, this has nothing to do with former employers, clients, or projects I've participated in. It has everything to do with me and the kind of marketer I chose to be in several jobs I had and projects I participated in.
Second, this isn't necessarily about traditional marketing verses social media marketing. It's about a mindset and approach to marketing. For me, the switch from traditional to social media revealed the arrogance because arrogant marketers can get called out and/or fail more easily in social media. There are traditional marketers who aren't arrogant and social media marketers who are. It's not about the tools, techniques, or strategies as much as the fundamental mindset upon which everything else is built.
Apologies
Since I've confessed to being guilty of the things listed above, I want to apologize a bit more specifically:
- To book buyers across the country, I apologize for subjecting you to ads that didn't provide any value at all. I participated in the development of many vague and meaningless ads that I knew you wouldn't pay attention to.
- To the millions of people who were on a dirty email list that a client purchased, I apologize for standing by while you received one more spam email in your inbox.
- To the people of Houston, Texas, I apologize for subjecting you to radio, television, direct mail, and billboards that you really didn't care about. You couldn't avoid it and that was on purpose. I'm sorry.
- To former clients, coworkers, and bosses, I apologize for being quiet when I disagreed with your campaign or strategy. You were paying me to tell you what I thought and I didn't do it all the time. It may not have changed anything, but maybe it would have. Now we'll never know.
- To several authors I worked with, I apologize for developing or going along with marketing plans that didn't help your sales or your brand. We could have spent that money many other ways that would have been more effective.
- To the people in a small New England town, I apologize that you were subjected to years of loud, unhelpful, annoying marketing campaigns and I didn't do much to fix it. It's what the client asked for and that's all that mattered. I'm sorry.
Now what?
Well, I feel better for one. I'm glad this is out there. I'm glad I'm aware of this and have been working on being a less arrogant marketer for the last two years despite the temptation to be drawn back in because it's all I knew.
I also can't help but wonder if someone else needs to confess or apologize for being an arrogant marketer. If you do, feel free to put it in the comments. If you happen to be a blogger and do a post about it, please let me know or post the link in the comments. Who knows what a few former arrogant marketers can do to change things around them?