It’s fashionable being a PR man now, right? Actually, I’m sorry, a communicator. What are you? A PR man. What? I’m sorry, my mistake, I’m a communicator. And what do you do? Social Media. I do not despise people who do this, but it does sadden me seeing that valuable principles that should back up these words are taken lightly just because…it looks good on the business card, in the about me or in a CV (the same applies to marketing/branding/advertising).
And when I say valuable principles I think about those things Mrs. Aneta Bogdan speaks with so much passion in her “Branding on the Eastern front”, I think about those ideas that Joe Pulizzi talks with so much zeal about or the things you can find in Seth Godin’s simple articles but with so much impact.
What is branding? What is marketing? What is PR? What is advertising?
Do they need values? Do they need principles? Do they need warriors to fight and waive the victory flag on top of the mountains? And are this warriors taking the responsibility of raising other warriors who may take over the principles of the field? Did Aneta take some disciples around her to prepare for this war? Does Vaynerchuk see something in the future of social media marketing? Will there be a next Kotler?
These are questions that sometimes frustrate me when I think about what an idiot I was for not striving more in my marketing education and taking shelter in a deep comfort at an international relations faculty. What did I get out of there? Nothing. What did I do there? Nothing. Maybe the only good thing I got out of it all was my final thesis. But now I want to “feed” on everything that means valuable principles of the field.
But you know what’s interesting? That these principles are not found in the fast food section.
These principles are like ingredients that you ALONE have to cook.
Imagine you’re in a supermarket and you can only buy ingredients to use at making your own food. And you’re hungry. And you have to make both soup and second dish. So what do you do? I’ll tell you what. You get into a corner and write down what you’re going to eat and what ingredients do you need to make it. After buying them, you go home and start cooking. The food is made by you and for you. That’s how it goes with the principles. There are a lot of principles in this field (and you can easily find them on Google. Exactly- finding principles on Google…). You just have to decide which ones you’ll adopt.
You want to be a PR man that sends gifts to bloggers telling the clients that was a PR campaign? You want to be a marketer who sells outdoor billboards and wants to tell people he did a BTL campaign? You want to be a copy or a designer that makes flyers and radio commercials and tells the client he did advertising? If you don’t, then don’t break your principles.
I know this article is just an article (post, whatever) and it will get lost through the multitude of internet blogs but maybe one day, when the marketing flame burning inside me will be just heat I will get back to it and read these lines JUST for me. If you’re not interested in it then it’s not for you, leave it be. Close the page and go on.
I will be doing the same. Going on.
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