Marketing is the cover up!

As a freelance musician , I have had opportunities to meet and work with very talented musicians.  I know some incredible musicians that are borderline virtuoso's in their craft.  Some of these same guys struggle to find ways to highlight their talent.  There is also the whole "commercial is a sell out" philosophy they share.

Flip the coin and I know decent musicians who aren't as talented as my virtuoso friends.  They spent more time crafting a "character" and story that would give them the attention.  These musicians end up being more successful due to networking and trying to understand their audience.

I got the chance to work on projects in marketing and learned a few things.  Marketing is very important but if you were to talk to different people within a project, some would think  it's not that important. Some of them confuse sales and marketing while some simply don't know what Marketing really is.  Here are 2 important departments that aide Marketers.

Technical Engineers:

An engineer would say "Work on the product and make it so good, you don't need to spend a lot of money on marketing."  The engineer is seeing it from their point of view and I partially agree with it- You can't polish a turd.  The best engineers in the world are great to have because they minimalize the risk of the product not functioning properly. 

Not all of us have the luxury of working with the greatest engineers.  They are extremely specialized and in the new world of multiple hats, it's harder to find great engineers.  What if we had average engineers and limited budget?  

Marketing is the glue to help a product that may not be 100%, become relevant.  Like a musician obsessing over a chord progression, engineers fall privy to "perfectionism." Working on a product without communicating how it will help the customer can be dangerous and expensive.


R and D Team:

This team is always tied to sales and marketing but we know what their true agenda is-DATA.  They love data and lots of it.  They would tell you that there's no marketing if there's no research.  You need them in order to determine if the "idea" makes sense.  They develop these hypothesis and look more from a logical standpoint.  They share similar views from an engineer standpoint, as well as a marketing standpoint.

What makes R and D so crucial is that they are the ones that bridge the gap of technological ability and consumer insight trends.  Both sides need R and D.  R and D takes a huge junk of the budget and they rightfully can dispute they are more important than the others.  They are like the student in HS that was neither popular( Marketing) or nerd (Engineer)  They have the rare ability to connect with both sides.

It's tough for me to tell you that without strong R and D, a company is consistently successful.  I will say marketing  can compensate when budgets are limited.  Marketing can be the make up you use to cover a blemish so it's not as noticeable. If you happen to have those great engineers, and a strong R and D team,  Marketing in my eyes, the game changer to make you relevant!

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