Today's Marketing Cookie - A Purpose

​Today's Marketing Cookie is asking you to put a decisive stake in the ground for whatever you create as a marketer for your company, as well as, for your career. It's true. Marketers must have a personal purpose that serves as a compass for what they choose to do as a professional - and as a person. At the same time, marketers must also demonstrate a purpose for the products or services he or she is marketing so prospects can understand and believe in its purpose. If marketers must maintain a personal purpose while also creating a purpose for products, the two must also be aligned. Yes aligned. This means that not every marketer or agency will be a good fit to promote and market every product that comes along.

If your personal purpose conflicts with the purpose of what you are marketing, you will be unable to succeed. That is unless you are willing to ignore the guidance of your moral compass. I, for one, cannot. The most obvious example of conflicting ideals of course, would be the job of marketing a political candidate from the left (or right) wing, while your beliefs reside among the opposite wing. Marketing a political candidate would be difficult for me because I sometimes feel like the left wing and right wing are both connected to the same turkey. We are currently in the midst of a nasty presidential election cycle and the only thing I see improving are their school yard name calling skills.  No. I would be quite unsuccessful in this field.

There's not enough money in the world to replace your personal purpose either. The starvation of your guiding principles, in favor of money, will eventually force you to get back in alignment. Sometimes products and services create conflict with a marketers personal morals. I have elected not to accept money to market companies who sell adult-related or government-regulated industries such as guns, alcohol and tobacco. I would be unsuccessful working in these industries because people I care about have ruined their lives with these products... besides, my mother would probably find out and she wouldn't approve. LOL! There are however, plenty of marketers out there who would gladly take their money and will do a great job for them.

Just the act of marketing, for marketing's sake, is also not a sustainable purpose. As marketers, you must produce revenue in order to be able to keep your job as a marketer, but you must by no means keep your job as a marketer only for the purpose of producing revenue. There must be a larger purpose that drives you to succeed. If you accept a marketing job for a product you don't believe in, all you've done is accept a job. If you dread Mondays, and then by Monday morning are already longing for the weekend to arrive, chances are your purpose is in conflict with your work.  I promise that if you can align your personal purpose with that of your company, you will discover great success and sustained happiness!