Marketing is a cruel, cruel discipline, young marketers are trained to become sharks from the very start. It is hardwired to them that if they do not keep moving forward, they will drown.

Marketing could be an entrepreneur’s worst nightmare, I know many good people with good ideas who are bad in marketing. With all their smart and useful and benevolent thoughts, they are unable to translate their passion to something tangible. I can tell they are working hard but that fact alone doesn’t seem to be contributing to their success.

There ought to be a reason behind that. In many ways our generation has learned to associate achievement with money and there is no getting around that. It is strange that how we have become so blind and devoid of faith. We can’t see originality unless being pointed out. We can’t see beauty in anything until it serves our individual purposes.

A case to be quoted here is of the marketing genius Steve Jobs himself. There was a time when he was naive, he wanted to be an inventor more than a marketer. Probably he was more inclined to take an operations role in his company and let someone else do the selling. Much to his realization, he was thrown out of his own company. He had to learn marketing. He became the best in that.

This post is not just about marketing, it is about how we give importance to the outward appearances, about what we consider as assets and liabilities. Companies are succumbing to market competition and misjudging character for efficiency. People on the other hand are getting weary of everything. Social media is all so good but the narcissism is killing it. There is no way you can sell a holiday package to anyone without telling them how much they deserve it. The idea of brand storytelling is reaching new heights of self indulgence and everyone is asking – “what’s in it for me?”

The irony of marketing is that while it is done with the purpose of improving productivity by enforcing trust amongst the consumer, is counter-productive when done in excess because it incites scepticism instead of trust. Promises that are not delivered hurt you back. While the competition increases and everyone keeps making bigger, better promises, actual attention to detail reduces.

The current trends are to make the customer believe they are getting more than their money’s worth. If in fact everyone does get their money’s worth then how are businesses making profit? Over and over again we are led to believe that there is no way a business can survive with benevolence. Image builders and PR has tried to change that since the beginning of time. As they say – “no good deed goes unpunished”. But is that really so? When businesses focus on the sale it exactly means so.

We do find discrimination within a company, between employees, based on their direct contribution to the company’s earnings. That is when a hard-working process or operations person’s efforts are completely ignored. Businesses many a times think that the workers are a replaceable liability. You train them, feed them and yet they don’t seem to be bringing any money. Marketing people are always the favourites because they are always scheming about making more money and the sales people are assets because they are like the workhorses or cash cows or whatever you like to call them.

This situation seems more prominent in small businesses where there is an urge to expand quickly. More the business runs after gaining market share, the decisions keep getting tougher. Eventually the real work falls off the radar. We get substandard products, substandard services and more ways to present it otherwise. Expenses on promotion increases and the number crunchers that we are, we declare ourselves as a brand. The real concept of ‘brand’ is comprehended by a handful of businessmen. That it means it has to be good in every sense both inside and out, is like Camelot. If I have to invoke a biblical reference here then this is it –

To truly establish a brand that stands the test of time, it has to be really innocent and yet walk on fire. Be crucified for doing good and yet keep doing better…