A Matter of Marketing

On Matt Perman's What's Best Next Blog this week, I found this quote about marketing:

Marketing does not exist to make up for inadequacies in a mediocre product. The first job of marketing is to create an excellent product.

In today's create-consume-create culture, the product is often secondary to publicizing the product. I can think of one author in particular who caught my attention a couple of years ago with great content on his blog and a very successful book. I began reading his writing regularly. In a couple of months, however, a distinct shift occurred in his posts: rather than offering content, he began advertising future content. Deep thinking and well-crafted prose disappeared as more and more links to promotional events became prominent. The blog morphed into one loud commercial for himself and his products. In the process, his content died. I found no trouble in dropping that blog.

Most of us, however, are not looking to market and sell any product. The applicability in Perman's statement is in our creation of the one product we offer to the world daily: ourselves.

It may seem weird to think of ourselves as products, but most of us certainly act as if we must market ourselves for mass consumption. Every Facebook update, Tweet, and blog post we're involved in is a personal commercial for our brand. We market mightily, shining a light on the family we've created, the teams we support, the vacations we take, the annoyances bugging us, and the clever thoughts we have that the world needs to hear. What are all of these, if not marketing? Aren't we selling ourselves as clever and quirky, lovable and loving, worthy and confident commanders of our glorious kingdoms?

To take Perman's advice, we would be better served focusing on improving the product. Is it a sin to market ourselves? No, I don't believe so. To claim what we are is to share, to engage in the human experience with others in an authentic, relationship-building way. But don't get caught up in it. If you want people to believe in you, just be excellent rather than claiming excellence. Quality often requires little fanfare.