Marketers as leaders of change
By Dominika Jankowska
The author of Tribes, Seth Godin, argues that people like to align themselves with other people like them. He also says that we like to be in tribes, we like to be connected. Therefore, it is so much easier to be led as a group and the author of Purple Cow strongly believes that marketers should use this opportunity to target their products/services. Also I really liked the ‘life’s too short, you should quit’ concept which I strongly believe is the way out from the job you haven’t got faith in. Taking into account creative industries sector, for instance, if you don’t believe you will make it with your deadlines and the overall strategy you will fail. The markets change too quickly to having the organisation piggybacked without serious consequences. Mr Godin, not without a reason draws our attention to ‘changing from within’ which, he argues, is also marketing. If there are like-minded people in your organisation it is possible to align them to make change which is critical here, since the overall result is delivered together, in a tribe.
It is also crucial that apart from changing from within there is a presence of a manifesto and wanting the things to get better. It really makes me think of the current economic climate and the tendency of thinking ‘survival’ and hoping for the things to get better. So does that make marketers better in their jobs now? Does it tease out the deepest of their skills due to facing the recession? Maybe, in fact what people wait for is someone to say, “Here’s an idea or here’s a service or a product or a candidate that will take us somewhere new, let’s go.”
Moreover, the whole essence of building a tribe in the organisation as he suggests is having people bringing them new members instead of reaching for them. I think word of mouth which is a final result of how the clients/customers perceive the service/product delivered to them. The better customer satisfaction, the bigger chance to gain new members.
Internet is the next crucial element for building tribes. ‘Real tribes almost always come from a sense of authenticity, people who have connected to the real world.’ Such connection, as the author suggests, can be done through press releases which help being noticed by people. And here, I’m almost grateful for mentioning press releases, since I believe they’re the most effective way of communicating with the world ‘out there’ and you might be also interested in reading a short piece on this magic tool of communication here.
Summarising, the credit crunch became the biggest opportunity the marketers and other organisations have ever had. ‘It’s the biggest opportunity of your lifetime. It’s during the recession that great companies and great brands are built’. And I completely agree with that and you can see that here.
Enterprise | Dominika Jankowska | Thursday, April 30, 2009
Is it the case that Godin is suggesting that marketing should be much more strategic, part of the long term strategy rather then an add on? In other words it should be integrated into the business / organisation.
I like the way you have connected this to your earlier piece about press releases. I think press releases are a good communication tool but, again, they should be part of a strategic approach. Communication is not just about putting stuff out there but should be about creating genuine dialogue with clients / audiences.
Are you a professional journalist? You write very well.