"Marketing" is a job category, just like "engineer" or "analyst" or "human resources specialist" -- but in many ways, it's the quirkiest field in which to work. You can study marketing at a university for four years and be well-prepared for a marketing gig at most large consumer product companies, such as Proctor and Gamble or Johnson & Johnson. But the clinical study of the marketing discipline won't get you all the way to a marketing career in 2012 or beyond -- because what you're learning is based on case studies of consumer behavior and product offerings that are not new.  Ivory Soap is not new. Chevrolets are not new. Books are not new.  Yet how we select purchases like cars, or soap, or books has little resemblance to how we made buying decisions less than a generation ago. The reality is that shopping behaviors and consumer preferences have shifted radically in recent years, and one of the main jobs of a marketer is to stay abreast of what people want, how they want it, when they want it, and why they want it.  Marketers must continually lead the way as well as react to shifts in the marketplace and the fickle mindset of consumers.

Everyone brings something different to their approach to marketing.  Especially in this field, your personal outlook and background will color how you tackle thorny marketing challenges -- because this is all about the audience, and we are ALL members of the great consumer audience. So like it or not, we bring our own biases and desires to the table -- and we must be aware of that and figure out how to use that to our advantage. 

That said, one of the most fascinating things I believe about marketing, based on working in this field for many years, reading voraciously about it, finding great mentors, and learning everything on the topic I have been able to in the past two decades, is that there truly is no "wrong or right way" to achieve your goals. Great marketers ultimately follow their gut, while still taking into account consumer feedback, demographics and psychographics -- but taking it with a grain of salt.  Make a decision, and test something. As Apple Fellow and original Macintosh marketer Guy Kawasaki has been known to say, marketing is mostly "FIRE - READY - AIM." You have to have the confidence and guts to take action, learn from your results, then adjust and move forward.  Marketing is shooting at a target that is constantly in motion.

This is the story of how I learned to become a marketer, and what I believe about the field.  

I didn't have the luxury of easing into adulthood; I had to grow up fast.  I became an orphan in my early teens, and although I graduated high school in San Francisco with a hefty GPA and high honors, I spent those years in a fog of mourning and sadness and loss. I was an only child, and I missed my parents desperately. In high school, I buried myself in extracurricular activities -- president of the drama and debate clubs, editor of the school newspaper, acting in and directing school plays and musicals. There was a small inheritance set aside that allowed me to graduate from the private high school that cost a bundle, but not much cash beyond that, and certainly not enough to complete college.  If I knew then what I know now, I probably could have figured out a way to milk my very real "penniless orphan" status and get a full college scholarship somewhere, based on my grades and super-high SAT scores.  But in my eyes, I only had one choice:  work to earn enough money to live, and if "someday" I could manage to afford college, then I would be thrilled because before my parents tragically died, that was always my plan. 

"If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."   -- Woody Allen

 (It took me a lot of years to get my college education; but by that point I had studied so much independently that I could have taught many of the courses!)

I started working in marketing before I fully understood that I had "officially" selected a career in that field. In reality, it was a nearly-imperceptible shift from working in straight sales (which was a very clear-cut job!) to something... different, but still in the same ballpark. It took me a few years before I fully understood the difference between sales and marketing -- and I determined that marketing served to grease the skids for sales; to fill the sales pipeline; to entice customers and generate interest and curiosity in the product; and to use customer insight to drive development of excellent new products.  I fell in love with the entire discipline.

After high school, I worked wherever I could, and viewed every new gig as an opportunity to learn. I had a few jobs at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco -- pantry chef/prep cook (and oyster shucker) at a top seafood restaurant -- that taught me how to stay calm under pressure, work fast, and not freak out if I stabbed myself with an oyster knife. Call it mastery of self-control. I also landed a gig at the Gift Shop for the famed Wax Museum at the Wharf -- and one of the coolest perks of that job was that, on slow days, they'd send me into the displays to dust the wax figures and their environments. Not many people can say they've had that opportunity!  It was interesting to see "behind the curtain" -- the view of the wax figures was not nearly as scary or realistic when you're flicking dust off their eyeballs.

Seth Godin wrote a wonderful book called Tribes that made me recall my night job in those early-adult years. I "worked the door" at The Holy City Zoo, San Francisco's most beloved comedy club. This meant I wore quirky, semi-seductive and eye-catching clothing (I was quite partial to a few of the vintage clothing stores in the Haight/Ashbury district, especially a huge one called Aardvark's Odd Ark -- I tended toward evening dresses from the 40's - 60's, the more taffeta, sequins and rhinestones, the better.)

Denizens of the Haight -- they were a "unique" tribe, then and now -- and no matter what their actual age, they are still trapped in 1969.

I had grown up listening to comedy albums because my mom was a huge comedy fan, and there was also a 10pm - 11pm Comedy Hour every weeknight on KSFO radio that I hardly ever missed.  I knew most major comics' albums by heart; I used a Robin Williams quote in my high school yearbook.  So I thought I knew a bit about comedy.  By taking this job, I learned about the comedy TRIBE -- the rather unusual group of performers, groupies, hangers-on, musicians, artists, and assorted oddballs whose common denominator was that they were all outcasts from other tribes.  

Working at the Zoo gave me the opportunity to view an astounding array of performers up-close and personal -- on stage as well as backstage in the green room, and after the crowds left and the front doors closed, to see how these performers bounced off each other.  It was one-upsmanship, showmanship, taken to the nth degree.  Robin Williams, Rob Schneider, Bobcat Goldthwait, Rob Becker, Paula Poundstone, Dana Carvey, Sinbad, Bobby Slayton... dozens and dozens of comedians who were all vastly different in their style and approach, but still part of the same tribe.  It was an excellent lesson that has served me well in every marketing position I've held since that time:  never, NEVER allow yourself to think for a moment that your audience is homogenous -- it's not.  You may think you can identify a cohort and pin them down with demographics and psychographics -- but you'll still be off.  True customer insight comes from learning from individual customers, and then deciding where to focus -- because no matter how tightly-bound that particular audience seems to be, they're still all going to be vastly different from one another -- and you forget that at your peril.  Great lesson.  (Plus, I learned how to spot troublemakers,  calm down belligerent drunks, and best of all how to develop carny-midway-style patter to draw in the geese to pay their cover charge and step inside to see the show.  That last has served me exceptionally well at every single trade show I've ever worked:  no matter what industry, whether I was working a medical event, massive technology conference, spa and beauty show, or dozens more -- people want to be entertained and they want to be attracted to learn about your product.)

See Chris Brogan's spot-on post about AUDIENCES. Sums it up. 

Fortunately, the massive economic turmoil in recent years has washed away most of the lazy or egocentric marketers, because companies faced with financial rough seas had to jettison everything that didn't help keep the boat afloat.  An unexpected backwash has been that many Chief Marketing Officers have now become so paranoid about the need to show quantifiable results for every single tactic, that "doing the right things right" doesn't happen -- it's like they've thrown the baby out with the bathwater.  

In reality, marketers simply cannot (and should not) even attempt to quantify Every. Single. Tactic. It's like trying to pin a net value on calling your grandma on her birthday -- it's really kind of absurd.  Instead of spending inappropriate amounts of time, energy and manpower on counting and tracking everything you can, smart marketers learn to make judgment calls on what will bring them value and move the needle forward -- and THAT means knowing what your MOST IMPORTANT METRICS are.  It's ok to ignore the rest -- just focus on what matters most.  And be as frugal as you possibly can.  That's why I learned Photoshop and InDesign, became a power user of Word and PowerPoint, and studied photography and video production -- so I can literally do the work myself when needed.  I also know how to spot when a marketing agency is trying to roll me, because I know what's truly involved in getting work done.

While working at the Holy City Zoo, I connected with several talented people -- one of whom I picked to share my life with, the immensely intelligent and hilariously gifted writer/producer and performer, Martin Higgins -- and we started a small marketing agency together, Higgins Synthetic Realities.  HSR took on corporate event and production projects that the more established San Francisco firms wouldn't touch -- either because the budget was too small for them, or the request seemed patently impossible given the time frame or the intended outcome.  We didn't care -- we took on everything we could, and after a few years we had a thriving business that drew in more than enough clients through word of mouth.  In time, the company grew to a payroll of 90  employees and multi-million dollar revenue before we sold out to a Hollywood-based company and moved on.  

Business owners think differently about spending money than people who've only pulled paychecks in their career, I am convinced of this.  It's one of the reasons the economy is still sputtering, and why businesses are reluctant to hire -- a hire is a commitment and a direct cost; and you'd better be damn certain that new hire will be a revenue generator and not a cost burden.  Some companies see marketing as a support function, a cost to be reluctantly borne. I've always been aligned with those who view marketing as a line role; great marketing directly results in more sales and more revenue.  Key metrics for marketing should track net increase in revenue and pinpoint any revenue leakage (lost customers) so that can be addressed.

Because I've been a business owner, I am always frugal if not downright cheap regarding how I spend my boss's money to achieve company goals.  In every market there are ways to find great value AND accomplish your business goals.  9 times out of 10, you find win/win situations simply by building strong relationships with people -- that's where synergy comes from.  People do business with people, period.  This is essential in the business-to-business market, and it also bleeds through to the business-to-consumer market.

I am admitted geek, and proud of it. We got our first PC in 1982, running Wordstar on a tiny screen, and I was hooked.  Several of our clients at HSR were Silicon Valley giants that were still in startup mode.  (One of my favorite projects was the creation of a rap song called "The Record-Breaking Oracle" that celebrated the first time that Oracle Corporation broke $1 million in quarterly sales!) I served as a product manager and then director of marketing at a Microsoft spin-off that sold one of the first commercial email platforms, in addition to building the first online shipping infrastructure for UPS.  I ran a marketing team at Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, WA; and during my Microsoft years, I held several unbelievably cool jobs -- I ran the Global Customer Reference Program, I headed one of the marketing teams in the Windows group and I was part of the TechNet IT Showcase team that shepherded Fortune 500 CIOs visiting Redmond to see how Microsoft "ate its own dogfood" (ran its own in-development enterprise products). 

I've held other technology marketing positions -- but one thing that's been a constant for me, given that I started working with tech companies nearly 20 years ago, is that I have never noticed a drop in the number of great ideas out there -- but nearly every great idea will fall by the wayside eventually, as it's overtaken and consumed by the next new thing.  

Don't assume the flavor of the week will still be in vogue six months from now:  Netscape?  AOL?  Napster?  MySpace? SecondLife?  Today the hot tamales are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn -- guilty pleasures are Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Cracked. I'm building this site in Weebly, since I've found it fits my workstyle better than Blogger or Wordpress. There are thousands of tech tools and social media options -- and there are thousands of phone and tablet apps with more arriving every day.  Certainly, select the most suitable apps and platforms for marketing that you believe make sense for your audience -- but marketers must be nimble and agile more than anything else, ready to cut their losses and move on when it makes sense.  (This takes me back to my swanky trendy boutique days -- marketers must get very comfortable with spotting trends and knowing when to jump to the next thing.)

I have been a member of and worked with local Chambers in three states -- California (San Francisco area), Washington (Seattle/Bellevue area) and now Colorado (Denver area).  At my last job our geographic footprint was spread so wide that we belonged to over a dozen Chambers just in Colorado alone.  There's really not a lot of guidance available on how to work effectively with a Chamber, but after hosting a series of Executive Roundtables to explore this very issue,  I can tell you the secret to maximizing the value you receive from joining any Chamber of Commerce or other trade association for your business:  

• First, meet the leadership of the group you are considering joining -- are they lazy or dynamic?  Do they push hard for economic growth, or do they just get by? Vibrant and aggressive leadership is a must!  Nothing happens without a strong, visionary CEO at the helm, just like at any company.
• Second, check out the number of opportunities they provide for you to connect with other business owners and executives -- and evaluate the quality of the events.  Are they all rubber-chicken luncheons, or is there anything more creative?  (Most fun event I attended recently was to head to a local gun range that's regularly featured on a TV show about weaponry -- and we blasted targets for an hour.  It was fabulous.)
• Third -- and most important -- if you do decide to fork over the dues and join the group -- you must get involved as a volunteer. Period.  Come up with a way to contribute and give back to the organization.  Time given equals benefits received -- the more you give, the more you get back.

If you're not willing to do #1, 2, and 3 -- save your money.

Here's a story from a friend:  She is responsible for providing content for her company's social media efforts -- and that's a voracious beast that needs feeding at least once a day.  So it's a daily chunk of time to locate fresh articles and information that fit her industry, which happens to be financial services.  Lending, to be exact.  She found an article that offered some great tips on how to avoid NEEDING to take out a loan -- a "frugal lifestyle" article, if you will.  She posted it to the company's Facebook page, and her boss flipped out.  Why?  Because as a lender, the LAST thing the boss wanted was to offer any advice that might make people think twice before going deeper into debt!  So the article came down, pronto -- and was replaced with a piece on how to find the best deal on a car loan.

My friend ultimately left her job and moved to another industry recently -- she told me that incident was her deciding factor.  "I wasn't allowed to be honest with our readers, and it didn't sit well with me.  The reality was that people had posted requests for any ideas and info on how to cut debt, but my boss was only focused on how to push people into MORE debt.  I just couldn't do it any more."

Credibility.  It's a magic word.  Especially if your marketing efforts involve social media, you must be consistent, and you must be credible.  Success in today's global marketplace means building credibility and trust with your customers; it's not optional -- it is essential.

I see this as being even more important for commodity products and services. Think about it -- how many banks do you drive by to get to YOUR bank?  Why?  How many fast-food places, or grocery stores, or gas stations, or any other type of category-purveyor do you pass by to get to "your" preferred place to shop, or get your hair done, or buy dogfood?  Are you PetSmart, or PetCo?  Costco or Sam's Club?  Walmart or Target?  Why???  Do you even know?

Certainly, massive amounts of research has been done on brand preference, but my experience tells me that people simply align with a brand that they LIKE, period.  Convenience matters, too -- but "like" includes convenience.  It also includes customer service, product quality, shopping environment (whether brick and mortar or online) -- it's the whole package.  And the foundation of that package is honesty, integrity and credibility.

We live in a transparent world.  Enough minutes spent Googling can dig up the dirt on anyone or anything -- or any company.  Are there more complaints than compliments?  How does that make you feel?  A big part of a marketer's job is to help the entire organization align itself to "walk its talk" -- to truly deliver on the promise of exceptional service and quality products.  Simply put: to build trust.