Torture Memos: Just hum a few bars and you're a marketing genius! Apr 09 23

I have been thinking about the extreme importance of zigging where they zag, doing where they dolt, and marketing the hell out of it all. And, babe, let me tell you, it ain't easy to sell a concept that is still in Alpha, or worse, when the concept is so young that it's still learning the alphabet. Yet, whatever stage company, or product rev, you are in, it really all comes down to creativity and feeling. And sometimes a little musical intervention.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. First, let me better identify the role of a marketer. Strangely, folks still confuse marketing with selling. While the two should be comfortable sharing a sandwich now and then, they still have their own houses to keep in order. 

Get this: marketers take products to, you guessed it, market. They throw a lot of weight around and determine price, placement, positioning, market segmentation, how to make their numbers look better for VC pitches, and do many other Very Important Things.

Sales aces let marketing kick the leads in and work within given product launch plans, break new accounts and are the natural schmoozers. They generally range from the "Heroes for the customer class!" or "Just plain used car annoying"  in the Ninja Success Spectrum, or the "NSS" as we like to affectionately call it here.

Marketeers are my favorites, at least until some sales guy sends me a convincing tee-shirt (hint: size sm, color black), so let's talk about the art of marketing some more. 

Now, there are often opportunities to find new ways of looking at things and educating your market as such. Take waterboarding. You could sell on the entertainment side but it's still going to get messy and the message muddled. (Trust me, I know: I had similiar challenges when doing contract gigs years ago, but I was young and needed the money....) But, now, I can say with 100% confidence that this is a perfect example of where a little jingle clears up an uncomfortable memo. 

Take it away Jonathan Mann! And, by all means, hire this guy for any major product launch campaign, customer-facing torture projects or the neighbor's kid's birthday party.

Comments

[definitely not Jackie]

Oh my God. It sounds like Legal could be the best marketers yet. Can't you just see them making a power point pres with one of the marketing weasels?

Solidarity through obscurity! Ya-Ya!

[a1sem me]

I know of someone that can make a theme song for anything. It's rather annoying. But, it may be useful to keep some of these talented people in your Rolodex incase, for instance, your company just did something brilliant like mass deforestation of Canada for Kotex.

Actually, I think Kimberly Clark may need this guy the most. Keep up the very good and incredibly odd work! -kim