Marketing Fascinates Me, but Not Really

I just wrote this so it’s ramble-y and without sources, so either I’ll leave it as is or I’ll overwrite the hell out of this. Basically I just want this posted so that my ‘Popcorn’ article isn’t the only thing in this section of the website (And I can add a photo of my own to it! Yay self-sufficiency!)

Marketing confuses me, especially regarding marketing my music and art. Maybe part of it is that I’ve yet to hear an argument that makes marketing truly captivating for me. To me, marketing is the means to an end, and the nature of that seems disingenuous at best. That’s not to say that marketing is necessarily wack, but just that the quality and/or direction of that marketing is necessarily dependent on the product being marketed. Maybe I’m on to something, or maybe I’m also revealing just how bad I am at it too.

Let’s take the classic (and annoying, for many reasons, my apologies) marketing exercise of selling somebody the pen in front of them. The question is somewhat rhetorical as there’s no objective or singular way to solve the problem, but there is an objective success in having convinced someone to buy that pen. Everybody may go about that problem differently, but I would start by thinking about:

- A description of the pen’s qualities

- An analysis of how to connect those qualities to the person I’m selling to

All my former art history professors would either roll their eyes or give me a standing ovation for my rationale. Simply put, this is how I was trained in observing works of art: Start with the description, and then analyze more conceptual facets of that work. So let’s say the pen is blue, although a slightly transparent blue as you can see the inkwell through the pen’s translucent body. When holding it, the pen feels like cheap plastic and is light in the hand, and if not mass produced was made by some weirdo to look and feel as such. The cap has a clip, and the portion covering the pen tip presses onto the pen body snugly while you’re writing. There’s more, but I’m already starting to bore myself.

If I’m selling the pen to my mom, I’d know a great deal in how to market it to her. She likes the color blue, she isn’t too picky about her choice of pen, and she really does love me so much that she would scream from the rooftops that she’s using the pen her son gave her. Easy money. However, if I was selling it to a stranger, I’d rely more on facets of that description which may speak to what I imagine a person would want it for. Maybe the person favors convenience and would enjoy the ease of use, lack of weight, and strength of the plastic body. Maybe the person isn’t sentimental and is actively opposed to flash and glitz, opting for the utilitarian and pragmatic aspects of the pen. Maybe the pen is manufactured by a relative of the person’s family, and they want to show off their domination of the working class through their family’s fortitude and industry ruthlessness! In any part I’m boring myself again so I’ll cut to the chase: In both the cases of my mom or any other person, to sell the product I must detail aspects of it apart from the physical description itself.

Products don’t need to be marketed if they don’t face competition. More accurately, products aren’t marketed when competition isn’t perceived. And when it is perceived, marketing is focused on the personal effect of that product instead of the product itself. Marketing isn’t about selling you the pen but selling you how the pen will meet your needs and make you feel (Can you believe I’ve only watched half of Mad Men?). If I were to consume myself with marketing my music, I’d force myself to compartmentalize, consolidate, and streamline aspects of my work which I believe speak for themselves in that they speak for however you interpret them.

- What genre is my music? Beats me.

- How did you develop your photographic style? I just kinda like it and it’s fun to do.

- What do I hope to achieve with my music? I dunno, music go brrrr.

As my day job of selling tours has a decent amount to do with this whole chimichanga of a personal conundrum, I’m pleased to not worry about biting into any of that with my personal passion projects. That’s not to say the day job work is entirely gross either. In the words of the wise and strangely powerful Rick Steves at the later end of his recent wine tasting, “The best souvenir is a broader perspective.” In this way, education and marketing embrace towards a common goal of a lived experience made richer. Sounds nice to me :)

- Jackson