Is It Really Me?

There was a recent discussion on Entrepreneurs' Playground at Xing (a group I co-mod) about fake profiles. I remember someone (I'm soooorry but I forgot who - bad, bad and very bad!) mentioning that practically every profile on Xing says CEO, Managing Director or some such exalted position.

Well, of course, most are probably true but ya gotta wonder: where'd all the secretaries go? Is the world now overpopulated with CEOs? No wonder we had Enron.

I am a very lowly marketing consultant on my profiles. I am tempted to write CEO. Sadly, I'm not. I am CEO of myself, though. Does that count?

I do, however, possess the daunting title of Country Manager for Grey Russell Worldwide (Philippines), a business venture I recently opened with Greek businessman, George Karahalios. Oh, don't be so impressed. It just means I run the Philippine office. Nothing else. It also means I'm everyone in the Philippine office so Country Manager literally means that - I manage the Philippine office of Grey Russell Worldwide.

Why do we have fixations on titles? Shouldn't we be more fixated with credentials? Then again, credentials can, at times, be faked. So that leaves us with what? Brains and talent honed through experience and continued learning.

You can always fake a title. You can do the same with credentials. Heck, you can even fake recommendations. All you need to do is make sure you're good friends with top honchos in several corporations and voila! The better, of course, if they owe you big time. I've gotten testimonials from business colleagues where I wrote the testimonial myself and they just signed it. It was a very enriching experience for my ego, I must say.

But, after you've faked everything, the acid test comes when you open your mouth. Because, by opening it, people get a chance to peek inside your brains - after they manage to get past the shock of seeing your esophagus, of course.

People almost always ask me for my credentials, client list, etc. It gets to the point where I firmly believe I should carry a slambook around and save myself the agony of listening to myself drone about my accomplishments. It just sounds fun in the beginning. After a while, I'm bored with myself and I keep looking around fully expecting to see my long-lost twin sister.

I could possibly not be as boring as what my resume seems to indicate.

Forgive me. I've been spending the past 2 weeks sending proposals left and right, I swear I cannot stand to read another line from my resume. Not that I'm not grateful for these opportunities. OF COURSE I AM! Are you crazy? I've got college tuition to prepare for. So, NO! I'm not bitching. I'm merely making an observation.

You can only pretend so much and, eventually, someone will figure out the real deal.

You can fake your way to being a marketing strategist by taking snippets (or even entire pages) of marketing information (Wiki and Marketing Profs are works of art, I swear) but, if you do not possess the intelligence, experience and talent to weave them all into a coherent, effective and creative marketing campaign, you're not worth your self-proclaimed title.

Hmmm...my English professor will strangle me for that long-winded sentence. I really have to learn to use punctuation marks.

The thing with marketing is that it's not an absolute science. It's not like being a medical doctor, architect or engineer where you really need to study certain courses for ages in order to get it.

Some people just wander into marketing by accident and managed to make whole careers out of it. I did. But I didn't take up marketing in college. What I learned in college has no use to my marketing career. Well, apart from Italian 10 and German 10.

But what I did not learn in school, I made up for by learning about it through my work experience, my mentors (hello, Mama Grace and Mama Rosa!) and just generally learning everything I could about marketing in order to sharpen my marketing skills. It was tough and painful because I learned from scratch. But learn I did and, even when I felt like giving up (because who in their right mind enjoys learning how to read a financial statement?!), I forced myself to go on knowing it is crucial that I learn those skills so I could be the marketing strategist I am proclaim myself to be.

Another long-winded sentence. Sigh.

Yet, there are those who just happen to know the textbook definition of branding and believe they possess the credentials to be the authority on that subject. I am not David Aaker and will never be David Aaker so, while I may speak with authority about the subject of branding, I will never be in the same league as he is. People will defer to David Aaker because who the heck am I?

In this business, it's easy to get carried away by a couple of successful marketing campaigns completely forgetting the fact that, while you may have conceptualized the campaign, an entire village implemented it. Therefore, the success of that campaign is not yours alone to enjoy or gain credit for.

I like my career because I always learn new things. Just when I thought I know all there is to know about product management for example, I end up working with a product I have never handled before. So whatever it was I learned about product management evolves to take on a new meaning in the face of the new product.

That's what makes marketing so exciting for me. It is never the same thing.

One concept can have many faces depending on the industry or category it belongs to. It changes even with the target market, distribution channels or communication strategies being used. It is forever evolving because business is dynamic.

I think of it in Harry Potter terms. You know, like shape shifters.

Is it easy, then, to fake marketing credentials? Piece o' cake. Is it easy to fake being a marketing strategist? No. Either you are or you aren't. Your lack of marketing brains, talent and experience will eventually give you up.

After a couple of beers, someone will figure out the truth. Often, that someone is your client.

Labels: marketer, marketing strategist

Continue reading this...

Marketing Confessions of Sunny whispered 5:33 PM
|


. . .