A Marketer’s Life

In the current economic climate, getting noticed seems to be a requirement for success. Years ago getting noticed wasn’t nearly as essential or paradoxically, as easy as it is today. Businesses have turned to the internet and often rely on a search engine ranking system or keyword ranking software to get their products and services noticed. Many years ago when people lived in small towns everyone knew how to find what they needed. They all asked Betty or Gertrude where to go to find the best iron skillet or horseshoe. Everyone knew that Doc Peterson shouldn’t deliver a baby in the evening, because later in the day he was wobbly with alcohol. Today the the entire world is online and getting noticed is like listening for a whisper in the middle of a NASCAR race. The din is so great that sometimes the reason for making noise gets forgotten.

In an age of reality television and celebrities are nothing more than being in the spotlight, substance often turns up missing. A business axiom states, which unfortunately is true, that money follows name recognition. It has even invaded the world of information exchange with groups bent on getting a lie repeated so often it becomes deemed the truth. The world is filled with so much spin that knowing what is true and important is challenging to ascertain. Whole worlds are built on illusion and perception, people repeating something, or believing something that it becomes true, at least for awhile until the illusion collapses on itself. The housing crisis is a perfect example. This tendency isn’t new to human nature|, take the story of the Emperors New Clothes as indication that people often believe the perceived experts. The difference today is that there are so many outlets and so many ways to spin it that finding the truth is often a difficult task.

Finding worth in anything is a personal thing. So many people are driven by what is popular or what is Trendy that few stop, breathe and ask themselves if it is true for them. The world is filled with great writers, amazing artists, fantastic actors, and phenomenal technology geniuses. Often these are not the ones the reach success. The brilliant are often brilliant for the sake of the craft. It is something they love with purity. On occasion fortune shines on them and success follows. Some are able to do the work and manage the business that lets their works come to light. More often then not the great minds, the great works of art, the great moments of theater, disappear without recognition. It is terrifying to think that the world has failed to benefit from a hundred Shakespeare’s and a thousand Van Gough’s.

There are two interesting perspectives on this fact. First is the simple fact that if something is created to be seen, bought, or shared, it needs a forum and exposure. That is just common business sense. The more interesting revelation is that the world is chock full of astounding works as yet undiscovered and unshared. The great majority of din is everyone shouting about the naked Emperor pretending he is wearing fine garments.

If anyone starts thinking for themselves and says it doesn’t matter what others think, do I like this, does this move me, then a whole new world opens. Thinking for ones self has become a rare and valuable skill.

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