How Not To Find a Great Marketing Person

Egads, have you ever read some of the job descriptions for marketing people? Some of them are downright cryptic. And for companies who are looking for "results oriented" people, I'm amazed at how jargon laden and crappy some of them are. Cases in point from just a little quality time with CareerBuilder:


From a big fat Fortune 500 company:

Collaborate with field and other cross-functional partners to identify potential revenue generating gaps or barriers in building infrastructure for any given alternate channel.

Is this jargon for "figure out what's working and what's not?"

From a big department store retailer:

Planning and execution of a multiple cutting edge business and strategic relationship marketing programs supporting the extension and development of online and direct-to-customer channels for XYZ company. Forming partnerships with internal business for expansion of value-added services and capabilities. Forming strategic partnerships with external partners to create new services, adding value to the XYZ customer experience.

Ready for buzzword bingo, anyone? Using the old trick of removing the buzzwords to reveal the essence of the sentence, we're left with little of substance. No wonder this company is struggling mightily.

From another retailer, this time in office supplies:

...this position is accountable for building, maintaining, and expanding the technical infrastructures and analytical skills pool required to consistently deliver timely insight to key decision makers as well as for building strategic relationships with merchandising, marketing, and sales to foster a fact based decision making culture.

As opposed to making decisions based on a bunch of BS? And I'm not exactly sure I'd like to go swimming in an analytical skills pool.

I could go on. (If you're a serious masochist, just head to career builder and type in "marketing". Start reading. Prepare the Advil.)

So how should people find great marketing talent?

You have to be willing to turn convention on it's head a little bit. The essence of great marketing is clear, compelling communication with the people that want to know you. You can't have this be an integral part of your strategy and then recruit people with this drivel.

Start paying attention to the aspects of your potential Marketeers that are the intangibles. I promise you'll find lots of people with adequate qualifications. But pay attention to a few other things:

• Are they personable? Funny? Gregarious? If not, their projects aren't likely to be, either.
• Can they hold an engaging conversation? This translates, trust me. Ever met a great marketing person with a wilting personality?
• Do they have interests outside of work, and do they participate in other activities and communities, either online or off? Great marketing is a good dose of insight and instinct, and only those who are involved in communities will know what it's like to talk to one.
• Is their resume or cover letter full of the same jargon that's in these job descriptions? Red flag.

It'll also help to take a hard look at the job description you're writing and whittle it down to the things you really want someone to do. You probably don't need much more than that. Skip the buzzwords. And when you're interviewing, toss aside the standard "Give me an example of a time you helped a customer with a difficult problem" and get to know the person sitting in front of you.

Smart marketing people are immune to these kinds of appeals, and will often skip right to the next company. Remember, you're selling them the appeal of working with you too, not just doing them a favor by giving them a job. Smart marketers are savvy and in demand, and unfortunately mediocre ones can be found in droves. Which are you searching for?

Are You A Marketing Wannabe?

There's an important point to be made about marketing that to me is plain as day, but apparently it bears repeating.

Not every marketing vehicle is appropriate for you just because it's cool, trendy, new, or because a company you admire is doing it.

Greg Anderson has an interesting article today on AdAge about just this topic. And he actually has a funny anectode about showing up on Facebook and having his teenage niece ask "what are you doing here?".

He says:

Ironically, bad marketing is also part of the reason that people like my niece are leaving one setting and moving on to the next new thing where we're not clumsily asking them if they want to be friends.

Bad marketing. We don't like that term, but the reality is that it's everywhere. And there are countless upon countless articles, blogs, websites and everything in between promising that they can teach you, too, how to be viral and social mediafied and make your business relevant to millions by just putting your stuff on Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn.

So Can I Use This Stuff Or Not?

The answer is yes. But you must proceed with caution and understand these networks or risk ticking off all the people you so desperately wish to reach. Remember these things:

1. Social media is a conversation. Good conversationalists listen, absorb, and participate, in that order.

2. People participating in these communities are there because, uh, it's a community. They welcome newcomers but most are quick to spot the fakes and the posers and promptly ignore them.

3. Consumers - and your audience - are not dumb. Unless you have something that's interesting, relevant, or useful to them, they just aren't going to care.

So How Do I Know What Tools to Use?

I'd actually turn the question around and ask whom you're looking to reach, what you're planning to say, and what makes you unique. Then - and ONLY then - can you start evaluating how to get the message across. And you may find that some "old school" tactics are just as viable as getting yourself in a kafuffle to try and figure out a Facebook page.

But if social media outlets are really something you want to explore, you need to get out there and experience it for a while to build some credibility in the community. Get a Twitter ID and start following people that interest you or are in your industry. Have conversations. Go set up a LinkedIn profile and spend some time answering questions that others are asking.

What you'll find is not only do you learn what people are talking about and how they're digesting new stuff, but you're earning trust and credibility which can be a hundred times more powerful than a cheesy, badly run banner ad campaign (IMHO of course).

So what lessons have you learned about blending your business and new marketing channels? Share your successes and challenges in the comments and we'll do a follow up.

Marketers: No One Believes You.

Christopher Penn, blogger and creator of the Financial Aid Podcast, has this to say on a recent post about why marketing sucks:

When companies, organizations, or individuals focus only on the short term, whether it’s quarterly results on the Street or whether you can get some action at the single’s bar tonight, the same desperation is created by short term thinking. That combined with a profit above all else mentality has turned marketing into the corporate equivalent of that guy in the bar who smells of equal parts aggression, fear, and desperation - and the target audience stays far, far away.

Yep. I can't tell you how much I cringe when someone says to me "we need to do some of that New Media" or "can you get us some marketing on the internet?" Yikes.

What's worse, Penn's point above makes me cringe even more because it echoes something more sinister.

If you're a marketer, no one believes you will use your superpowers for good rather than evil.

So how do you overcome?

Chris Brogan is a fun blogger to read, and he usually comes up with something that makes me think. His recent post talks about Personal Branding and how important and challenging it is. I think it's even more critical for those of us who purport to be in the business of helping others elevate, define, and create awarness for their brands.

I've blogged before about the fact that I believe that your brand is really created not by you, but by the people that use your product or service or seek you out in the vast online universe. Sure, we can contribute to the conversation about how we'd like to be perceived, but ultimately, someone else is going to make up their mind. If you haven't checked out the interesting Brand Tag site, it's interesting fodder for my point. If you look at the words that people choose, sure, some are super intuitive. But it's amazing how many of these "tags" are words that the companies might or might not have chosen for their brands in the first place, for better or for worse.

That didn't answer my question.

Ok, sorry. My point is that in order to really have people believe that there ARE marketing people out there (I'd like to think myself included) that are honestly, truly dedicated to the good side of this craft, we have to continue to bring people interesting, relevant, different, and compelling stuff and stories.

It's not enough to extoll the quality, value, and convenience of Bob's Buttered Biscuits, we have to dig deep, find the unique elements, and tell THOSE to people without shouting at them to pay attention. You can lead a horse to water, after all...

As a marketing person, I think it's my duty not to whore out any old product and polish turds, but rather to find the diamonds in the rough. The untold stories. The nifty, keen, funny, exciting, exhilirating ones. And to be honest, if someone or something doesn't have ANY of these qualities? Well, that's not a problem that any marketing person - no matter how much of a rockstar they are - can fix.

Are you in marketing? How do you avoid being cast as a deceitful, manipulating liar? Or do you?

Buzzwords that don't work anymore.

Feel free to comment and add yours to the list or argue with mine.

1. Convenient
2. Unique
3. Authentic
4. Exciting
   
5. Quick/Fast
6. Consistent
7. Out-of-the-box
8. Synergy
9. Paradigm shift
10. Value-added
11. Results-oriented (I've never met someone who admitted to aiming for NOT achieving results)
12. Proactive (nevermind that the grammar purist in me still doesn't buy this made up word

You must use a human, accessible voice to talk to people about what you're trying to accomplish. I'm sure I could make this list into a top 100 (and I just might). Whatever story you're telling, it comes off as bogus when it's full of a bunch of trumped-up adjectives.

Honesty and humanity can speak volumes.

Retro Marketing

It's only a matter of time before the big CPG companies look to resurrect their old classics. And they're doing it - remember Brim, Salon Selectives, Underroos? There's a movement underway to bring these brands back to life because of their powerful recall. Kellogg's has announced that they're bringing back the "beloved" Hyrdox cookie.

Which makes me really wonder something.

Does recall still make the brand? We marketers have always touted brand recall as a signal of its success. I'm just not sure that does it anymore.


First of all, it's the quality of the product that ultimately determines whether it has a long or short lifespan. If Brim has a great jingle but tastes like crap, it's destined for the dustbin. Reason #1 why I don't think recall is enough.

This all sounds to me like big companies are finally feeling the pinch of traditional, big bucks marketing and rather than spending the time, money, and effort to innovate something truly powerfully great, they're riding on the coattails of nostalgia in hopes that it will bring them around. (I wonder if Seth agrees with me - I doubt he thinks that Hydrox revisited is a Purple Cow, if a Cow at all).

What do you think? Would the reprise of your favorite Quisp cereal make you rush to the store, or just make you think "hey look, Quisp!" and go on your merry way?