Marketing Pilgrim

Last week I talked about how marketers should leverage culture to promote brands. Today I would like to talk about why we also can (and should) change culture.

As I watched the video above I couldn’t help but ask myself, “Is marketing changing culture? Or is culture changing marketing?” Or in other words, are these ads changing our perception of beauty or is our perception of beauty changing the ads? I still don’t have the answer, but maybe it;s a little bit of both.

In the end it doesn’t really matter, the bottom line is that the concept of “ideal beauty” has been around for a very long time. However, that doesn’t mean that it has to continue, and as marketers we have a unique ability to make a difference. Because as marketers we, in part, define culture.

Back in November I shared this image on Google+. Chris Brogan, re-shared it and then 370 others followed suit! It is by far the most popular thing I have posted on Google+. Also, in April I blogged about how a piece of my content went viral on StumbleUpon, which as of today has gained over 1.2 million visitors.

Every time a piece of my content goes viral its completely unexpected and leaves me asking, why? I could just ignore things and go eat hot dogs, but, as a marketer its my job to answer that question.

Recently Jared Keller tried to answer this question, and in my opinion did a great job. Keller tells us that the secret to virality isn’t structure or social tools but rather the inherent culture of the given online ecosystem:

Once upon a time there was a commercial printing company. Of course this wasn’t just any company. This particular company was once regarded as a leader in its region, often winning awards for excellence. However, as time passed technology evolved and changed not only the process of printing but also the consumer demands. Needing to respond to these changes, the owner of the company upgraded their production capabilities by purchasing a digital press. In layman’s terms a digital press is similar to a giant computer printer. With it, a company can produce the same high quality printing that a large commercial offset printing press can but at smaller quantities and directly from a computer or workflow server. Digital presses not only allow for companies to streamline the production process but they also open up new avenues for more customized products such as variable printing.

Oh yes I can already hear the champagne bottles popping! Happy new year! 2012 is going to be an amazing year! Have you made your resolutions yet? If one of them is to be a better marketer then I have a secret strategy in store that is sure to get you started on the right foot!

Some define marketing as a process which creates wealth. So if you want to get better at marketing then you need to get better at creating wealth. I am a big believer that practice makes perfect so how about start creating some wealth right now for an organization that needs it? No I am not talking about SEO or social media. I am not talking about PPC or conversion optimization.

Before I owned my own business, I worked in-house for a large real estate brokerage. If you want to learn about sales go work for a real estate company. Apart from a handful of support staff most are completely run by sales agents. I learned a lot about sales and business while working there. But the two lessons that stuck out the most were:

Pep talks are awesome aren’t they? Heck, I watched the one above 6 times yesterday and I don’t even like football! A good pep talk can inspire people to do amazing things. We see them all the time in sports, political campaigns, marketing, and sometimes even in our churches!

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Yay! Today is Thanksgiving! FEED ME TURKEY!

Ok so I know what you are thinking, Um Joe, Thanksgiving was two days ago! But, you are wrong, and in this post I am going to prove it to you. Your thanksgiving may have been two days ago, but mine is today. You see, in my family we all have different places to go on Thanksgiving which means that usually we end up celebrating together on the Saturday after. I know it sounds crazy, but if you have ever met any of my family, you would see that crazy works for us!

Oh, and tomorrow is Thanksgiving as well! YAY More turkey! And the day after that, more Thanksgiving! In fact I am not going to stop with Thanksgiving! I am not sure how long the turkey will last, but I guess I can always buy more.