This week’s weekly thought; an opportunity to market something we know well, but sometimes find the hardest to sell.
This year, the world has handed me a new product to take to market, an exciting new project. It’s a product I know well; I can see its potential, and I know its features and functions.
I have seen the previous attempts to market it before, where improvements can be made. I can market it authentically and tick all the buzzword boxes. I even get to work closely with sales, I can really influence how this thing is taken to market.
However, I’ve chatted with chums, really successful marketers, and they’ve told me how hard it is to take this product to market and shared their challenges. They tell me, “Please, give me any other product, and I’ll do great, but please, no, not this one”.
They have all the marketing smarts, they know how to figure out an ICP, the buyer personas, how to define the product, it’s value to the buyer and can tell a compelling story that responds to their needs.
When I chatted to my chum Robert Rose, he shared some sage advice he had been contemplating when he needed to market this product; “marketing… yes… do some”.
This product is like marketing kryptonite, when we are asked to put together the words, the stories, and pitch them, we fumble, no are longer faster than a speeding bullet, or more powerful than a locomotive. As for leaping tall buildings in a single bound? Forget about it.
What is this product?
You might have guessed.
It’s ourselves.
It’s all marketing messages communicated via whispered humble brags with extra humble and hold the brag.
Aside from being back full-time consulting as part of Rockstar CMO and marketing that, I am trying to consummate my long-term flirtation with writing a book. I’m doing a course with a group of budding writers, some of whom are marketers, all seem extremely knowledgeable about their topic and some are experienced leaders.
The thing that inspired this post, was today’s lesson on the course was our target audience and marketing. One of the group shared a great comment, that I won’t share as it’s a private group, but it ended “if someone asks ‘so tell me a bit about yourself’ I get stuck”
Ourselves, our own kryptonite.
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I’m a 3xCMO, now a marketing strategy advisor and podcast host at Rockstar CMO. Although, I’m not a rock star, but a marketing leader, strategist, content marketer, columnist, speaker, industry watcher, and creator of ART (Awareness, Revenue, and Trust) for the companies I work with. But most of all, I am an enthusiastic tea drinker.
You can find me on LinkedIn, Twitter, or now Threads! – or listen to my weekly podcast at Rockstarcmo.com
The half-baked thoughts shared on this blog may not reflect those of my employer or clients, and if the topic of this article is interesting or you just want to say hello please get in touch.