Don’t love your company.

Yes, that’s right. I don’t want you to fall into a trap of loving your company or product. The worst thing that could happen to any marketer is to loose all objectivity while making marketing decisions. As a marketer, I always look at my company from the eyes of a detractor (critic). Some of my friends call me rebellious. Actually, that’s not entirely untrue!

A healthy self critique encourages me to always think about better ways to convince my audience that my product is better than the competition. Remember, whenever you look at or hear about your product, think from the perspective of your customer, and question “so what?” Just do this simple exercise and see for yourself. Pick up the last piece of content you may have written for your company or product. Revisit that piece today, seek an unbiased review from a colleague (who is not associated with your product or company) and see the outcome. You will find a lot of opportunities for improvement. I believe in keeping my approach simple. Let me quote a simple example of something I purposely do when I am in a briefing or all-hands meeting, I try to stand away from the crowd so that I can get that disconnected feeling. This helps me mentally focus on what’s being spoken and how it would be perceived or received externally. It almost turns me into an outsider, eavesdropping on what the organization is trying to say and do.

So the big question is, why do some people fall into this love trap in the first place? I believe at times, marketers take convenient positions, ignore what data tells us and how things can be perceived by people externally. Marketers who do not exercise objectivity eventually end up building campaigns that get muffled by the time they are  ready for execution because it degrades at every step of the process. What ensues is failure in delivering desired results. The culprit is our love for the company, product or campaign. So, maintain that objectivity at every step of the way.

Stay true to marketing and don’t love your company!

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In my future blogs, I would take up more marketing topics that are close to my heart and those I believe my readers can benefit from. If you want to suggest any topics, and want to hear my point of view on it, simply leave a feedback for me below.