You’re in Marketing? You are the Devil !

Toronto – Ontario

The idea for this post actually came to me a long time ago when I was still studying, but had a part time job working in a kitchen. I always thought of the atmosphere of working in a kitchen similar to that of working on ship. Everyone arrived in the kitchen through some device of their own and you’re stuck in a tight space with flames and sharp objects, so it guarantees the personalities will be lively and entertaining.

C’mon you know you want some Zip!

One of the cooks that I worked with was a bit younger and slightly less jaded than me. He didn’t buy into corporate culture or business in general, so when he found out that I was studying marketing he was horrified. I even remember he turned to me and said “You want to work in marketing? You are the devil!”

I was taken aback because I always thought that marketing was a necessary component to any business, even the kitchen we worked at depended on marketing for more work, and as a result our pay cheques. Fundamentally the difference in opinion between my portly co-worker and I arose from the fact that he saw marketers as people that manipulate people’s purchasing behaviour and preferences, which they obviously do. However this is not the extent of all marketing.

While I would say that the savviest marketers are consumer brands with mass media exposure, they are not always the best marketers. Besides,there are numerous sectors where marketing is not evil, but necessary to communicate to consumers and a wider audience. Think about health, pharmacy, not-for-profit, agriculture as examples.

It would be naive to assume that marketing is not inherently bias, after all you are trying to convince someone that your product/business is better than the competition or that the consumer needs your product. Evil or not marketing is something every business needs to do to survive, how you do it will determine whether or not you’re “evil”.

Mmmm yes EVIL!