Marketing: What's not to love?

Let me begin by stating marketing was not a career I originally thought of when I entered college way back in the dark ages. We courted for many years before realizing we were made for each other. Then the relationship really took off. Now, on the verge of celebrating a significant anniversary, I am reminiscing about why our union has stood the test of time.

There are so many reasons, a few of which I’ll share with you here:

Creativity

I have worked with many creative people in my career and every one of them have inspired me to be creative myself. Ultimately, marketing is all about finding creative ways to build relationships with the customer and stimulate certain behaviours. Successful marketing changes that behaviour to drive action, spur a purchase, encourage a sale.

Change

I love marketing because it is always changing. Over the past 50 years there have been drastic changes. It's an industry that's always adapting and morphing to the tastes of the consumer. Not even 10 years ago social media was something that only a few people knew about, now it's a global phenomenon.  A few decades before that, television was invented. Marketing embraced each of these innovations and used them as a medium for communication.

Technology

The magic marketers can make with technology is fascinating. Technology has changed so much over the years and has permeated everything a marketer does from design to content creation, metrics and distribution. I love it, and continue to enjoy the journey of learning more about how technology is making my career in marketing more effective, measurable, creative, diverse in distribution and dare I say frustrating too!

Storytelling

Who doesn't like to hear a good story? Marketing is the art of telling the story of a brand. Each time you encounter a brand name, that’s marketing. Down to even what colour the text is on the package or where the logo is placed, it’s all part of the story the company is trying to convey, and that is part of marketing. It’s fun to watch customers interact with media as they become advocates of our brand and pass our story along.

Innovation

This stems from our genes that make us want to be creative and to create. This sounds like it's all the same thing, but it's not. Being innovative is really a desire to do something completely different than the competition. As marketers, we like to poke, push and stretch the boundaries of what's considered normal, and make it behave differently.

Starting to understand why I love marketing? It's not like any other industry. Marketing is everywhere. It permeates every culture, industry, and media channel. You can't leave the house without experiencing a marketing message somewhere and the quality of that marketing often determines a business’s success or failure. I love this because it helps me to be a better student of my own industry.