Page 11 - Engage - no.9 - Summer 2017

Summer 2017
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SS: No marketing tactic is ever dead. Bad marketing is dead for sure, but even direct mail still works,
and door-to-door can probably still work. It all depends on the context. If someone comes up and offers paving services for our driveway because
my neighbor had his done and they can offer me a discount, I’ll probably listen. If the Girl Scouts come up to sell me Thin Mints, I will probably buy a skid of them. It’s all about finding people at the right moment and in the right context.
Q: You said in one of your speeches that hiring great people is more important than logos or branding. Why did you say you’d hire people with passion over people with experience?
SS: I think if we want to market better, we need to hire better. For some reason, marketing and human resources are treated as separate silos. They go to war over head count, budget, or relevance. I think they should work in tandem. If we hire better, it becomes easier to market our company. I don’t think experience is irrelevant, but I think it’s overrated.
I don’t know the difference between having 10 years of agency experience versus having five.
We hire with so much less focus on passion and drive, because those things are hard to read before you make the hire. If I were opening a coffee shop somewhere, I would go to all the coffee shops in town and find the best personalities and train them. Nowadays, companies post entry-level jobs that need five years of experience. What? The best time to get a great person is at the entry level. I can teach procedure, but I can’t teach giving a (bleep!).
Q: Your newest book, UnMarketing: Everything Has Changed and Nothing Is Di erent, shows how to unlearn the old ways. With things changing so quickly in the marketing world, what would you de ne as “old ways” in this day and age?
SS: The reason we came out with a new version
is because we’ve all got bright-and-shiny-object syndrome, so focus and strategy have gone out the window. It falls out the window because we are running around chasing, and that is so confusing to the marketplace. It’s also frustrating for marketers trying to jump on the latest thing. But if someone asks what your Snapchat strategy is and your
website doesn’t load well on mobile, you don’t need a new Snapchat strategy—you need a website that is responsive. Stop worrying about the next thing. “Usability” is a forgotten word, but there are brands whose sites aren’t rendering properly on tablets and phones. There are basic functions you need to be good at. For instance, does your site come up
in search, or how many clicks does it take to buy on your site? Rather than trying to get more sales, look at where you are losing sales now. What’s the sense in being mediocre on eight platforms? Be great on two. If you open up on all these places and
platforms, you have to monitor them, and that takes all your time.
Q: What is the best takeaway from your new book?
SS: The best takeaway is just what the title says. We realized that people were still buying the original version, which was written seven years earlier, but the landscape had shifted. The core concepts are still there, but we deleted five chapters and added five new ones. We also added commentary to the others, including how we bought this house that I’m sitting in because of donuts. n
WIN this newly
released second edition
of Scott’s book,
UnMarketing: Everything Has
Changed and Nothing Is Di erent
By Scott Stratten and Alison Stratten
Scan the QR code to enter, or visit: corporatepress.com/giveaway