• The beauty of marketing lies in marketing for a deep-rooted purpose. A well-intentioned sense of meaning that is grounded in core values. Which makes it something very different from marketing as manipulative propaganda.
• True marketing is having the message, the service or the product reaches out to the one that needs it the most. It is either the most compassionate thing one can do or the most manipulative.
• It seems to me that in the long-term it has been the higher form of marketing (the one that is beautiful) that has formed legacies.
• The initial deep-rooted purpose, if it is grounded in values, works through individuals. You don’t have it. It has you! Similarly, a message doesn’t need you. It’ll market for itself through others. Even after you.
Real life examples:
I watched a lecture by Steve Jobs. He talked about the marketing strategy of Apple. It was about ‘the passionate ones who change the world’. The message was if there are people who change the world then they use Apple products. He said the core values at Apple were kept constant even though the rest of the aspects (related to business, and so on) were allowed to change.
After going through some parts of his biography, his lecture & his interview, I’d say, it was an expression of his Zen faith which was at play. And it is that vibe of the beyond which attracts us to Apple products.
Apple’s primary core value was their support for people who think differently and are passionate to change the world. The goal was to make it seem that all those who change the world use Apple products!
To illustrate it Steve gives an example of Nike. A shoe brand that doesn’t talk about shoes in its advertisements! What they do talk about are the sportsmen and players. Similarly, Apple was about ‘the passionate ones who change the world’. And since having passion to change the world is such a primary human motivating instinct, it does wonders in terms of marketing.
True marketing of products or services is about inspiring the users to carry on with the heroic spirit into whatever they have chosen for themselves. So that perhaps they may become an inspiration for others!
Apple did it with inspiring those who dare to attempt to change the world with their passion. Nike with inspiring sportsmen and uplifting the spirit of players.
The users’ worth in terms of them having a heroic value that can inspire others has to be aided with marketing.
The users’ unknown potential has to be brought out by the virtue of excellent marketing. Marketing which is grounded in core values. Through which they can be inspired to pursue their mission.
That is both the hidden and the manifest beauty of marketing!
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