There are two main reasons I’ve kinda ‘left’ marketing and brand building as my core / day-to-day. Taking on just one brand and marketing project at a time now, and then only when we’re a really great match.
First, it’s because I don’t like what almost all marketing, and almost marketers, do. Most marketing spouts category norms. That’s it. Loud, expensively and often. There’s zero creative and commercial thought about organisational objectives from a brand and strategic marketing perspective. This is the (weak) marketers fault.
Second, marketing is boring. Marketers choose the ease of remembering over the difficulty of imagining, almost always. They do the safe thing. The done thing. The proven thing. Forgetting that, just maybe, the proven thing worked because, when they did it, they imagined it and did it first.
There is a way around this of course. That’s why I take on just one brand and marketing project at a time now, and then only when we’re a really great match. The way around this waste-of-time-and-money approach is to choose brand strength over brand awareness, and to choose the difficulty of imagining over the ease of remembering.
It’s only a start, mind. But it’s the best start there is.