"Make it go viral."
"Marketing is hard." A supervisor I've had used to tell me this. Repeatedly. And not in a kind way...but in a sarcastic fashion that really meant "it's not hard."
And there are days that I have a hard time disagreeing. Days like today. Days where I read that Nordstrom is selling a rock in a leather pouch. For $85. A marketing or product manager thought this was an idea worth pursuing. And I realized that we're here today because we as marketing professionals haven't done our job of defining our value.
That value? Driving outcomes. I don't know the exact reasons why Nordstrom launched this...so, I'm going to take a leap in logic because there's a topic that's been unsettling to me and I've wanted to address. That topic? Virality.
Many of us in marketing have been told to "make this post/picture/whatever, go viral!" That's not an outcome, not a valuable one at least. First, think about the number of content pieces, emails, images and social posts that happen in a given day; better yet...in a given "online minute." Check this post out for all the details, but here's a quick rundown:
400 hours of YouTube videos uploaded
3.1 Million Google Searches
422,000 tweets
3.3 Million Facebook posts
Getting something to go "viral" is more 'wish & a prayer' than a professional endeavor. Sure, this Nordstrom rock may go viral, but to what end? And more importantly, at what cost? Is it really helping Nordstrom? Is it convincing you to open your wallet and spend more? Doubtful. Going viral isn't valuable...going viral for the wrong reasons can be damaging. Yet we as marketers can't push back against these requests because we haven't convinced our team to see our role differently. Why?
Because most of us don't talk about outcomes. We don't talk about experimenting and setting goals. We still live in the old days of marketing where "branding" and "defining color palettes" were the apex of our work. We're terrified of being "wrong" and so we lean on abstract philosophies that certain colors will attract our buyer. We think. Maybe. At least, that's what we read once. No wonder the powers that be push us to making something "go viral!" At least that's a data point they can put a finger to and say "we made something happen!"
Don't get me wrong, our craft is still a mixture of art and science, but far too many of us have completely abandoned the science. If we want to get out of the absurd asks of making "something go viral" we have to begin educating our colleagues on the science of marketing. We must remove our own 'opinion' of something and insert our hypothesis. And then test that hypothesis, gather data and redefine until we understand how to drive valuable outcomes.
Otherwise? Our job is reduced to making an $85 rock "go viral."
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