My next5 posts will count down to my 101st blog post. In these posts I am going to share my thoughts on what makes a good modern day marketer.
In my life I have been called many things, some good, some not so much, but one word that keeps coming up is: Contrarian. What does that mean as a marketer?
Contrarian is usually used as an investment term, but Wikipedia also gives a great definition of a social contrarian:
In Sociology, the term can be understood as an attitude of going against the establishment in terms of the social mores of the time. A social contrarian attempts to show to others, like Plato through Socrates, that there is something inherently wrong with their limited world view.
If you then take that definition and substitute social for marketing I think you'd get a good idea of why my colleagues call me a contrarian (and an angry skater).
Now I'm not necessarily advocating being contrary for the sake of being contrary, but ask yourself who gets noticed more the company that does the same thing as everyone else or the company that goes against the norm?
So what traits make up a good Contrarian Marketer:
Be assertive: If a contrarian doesn't ever voice their opinion, what good is having a contrary opinion.
Be open minded: It's important to remember that as the contrarian you are not always right, but neither is everyone else.
Be client minded: As a contrarian it's easy to get caught up in the contrary point of view, but ultimately you have to do what's best for the client, not just what's contrary.
Be non-linear: This is one of the biggest ones. In order to truly be of value as a contrarian, you can't just point out the faults of an idea, but need to come up with a solution, and to come up with a viable solution that is not obvious and counter intuitive, requires excellent non-linear thinking.