The Key to a Happy Marketing Career
Right now I’m reading the book Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live by Laszlo Bock, and it's gotten me wondering about what motivates people in their marketing careers. Reflecting on my 20 years in my marketing, I’ve been asking myself: what keeps me going and what makes me happy?
I’ve worked in different sized of companies – from being self-employed to working in large fortune-500 companies. I’ve worked in start-ups and in companies that have been around for centuries. I’ve worked in marketing specialities as varied as special events, consumer packaged goods, advertising and innovation. While the places that I’ve worked and the type of work I’ve done has changed, I've discovered a few things that really motivates me in my marketing career. I’d like to share those insights with you and if you read to the end, you’ll discover what I think is the key to a happy marketing career.
1. Get to know your consumer:
Adam Grant, a Wharton Business school professor and author of several best-selling books in management, wrote this article about how customers can rally your troops. In it he describes a study that he conducted with a group of university fundraising callers who solicited for donations, some of which went to fund student scholarships. These callers had motivational challenges just like any other sales or service job - it was repetitive work with low autonomy. And at times, they had to deal with rude potential donors. All of this led to high turnover and general dissatisfaction with the work. Grant invited a scholarship recipient to give a five-minute talk about how the work that they did in fundraising made a difference in his life and how much he appreciated their efforts. In the month following the talk, these callers showed an average increase of 171% in the money they raised while callers who did not meet the scholarship student showed no significant change in performance.
As illuminated by Grant's experiment, talking to the people that are impacted by your work is critical. Meeting your consumers is one of the best way to stay motivated in marketing. When you meet your consumers, you not only understand them better, you want to better meet their needs. It is serves to contextualize the work you do day in and day out, and as a result, your work will take on more meaning. I especially love talking to people who are brand lovers because to them, your brand has a special place in their heart. They advocate for your brand and cultivate more brand lovers. These are the kind of people that are worth getting to know because not only will you learn something about your brand, you’ll remember her the next time you ask yourself ‘why am I doing this?’ It’s for your consumer.
2. Meet the people who make your product:
When I was a new brand manager on a well-known tea brand, my boss decided to take the entire brand team to the factory where the teas were packaged. The backdrop to this story is that before I joined the team, the executive marketing team decided it was time to reposition the brand. In updating the packaging to align with the new brand positioning, they decided to abandon some iconic design elements which made it difficult for consumers find the brand on shelf. Sales had declined precipitously and everyone was tasked with fixing the business. At headquarters, we were working hard to fix the branding problems, but it wasn’t until we went to the factory that I realized how much of our work impacted others.
During our factory visit, one of my colleagues was intercepted by one of the workers in the plant. The woman came up to her and excitedly asking her if she was from headquarters. When my colleague said yes, the woman said, “I hope you are going to fix the business because people are going to start losing their jobs.” When my colleague came back and told us about this conversation, we were all humbled. I’m embarrassed to say that it was the first time I realized how much my work impacted others. I hadn’t realized until that day that my work played a part in keeping the factories producing and providing people with jobs. It’s important to realize how your work impacts others, and it’s something that I think is critical for every marketer. Get to know the people making the products you are marketing. It’ll give you perspective and it will motivate you to become a better marketer.
3. Celebrate your successes and reflect on failures with your team:
Being a team leader for any marketing endeavor is a big responsibility. Not only do you have to motivate yourself, you have to keep your team motivated. One of the things that I think is critical in any job, is to make sure you constantly acknowledge your team's wins – however big or small. Every project has milestones and its important to celebrate those because it keeps your team moving forward. It’s also just as helpful to reflect on anything that could have been done better. There will be hurdles and challenges in any project, but a strong, cohesive project team can move through them quickly if the lines of communication are kept open. So praise, reflect and keep the conversation going.
So what am I saying? Staying motivated and happy in your job cannot solely be about hitting your numbers, getting a raise or landing a promotion. These extrinsic rewards can make you happy for some time, but it rarely leads to long-term happiness in any job. The more gratifying rewards are intrinsic – and one very motivating reward is seeing how your work impacts others in a positive way. In other words: the key to a happy career in marketing is a sincere desire to serve others. So meet your customers, cherish your team and thank the people who make your product. These are the factors that will help lead you to greater fulfillment in your job.