Thread by @davelocity

1/ There are 3 kinds of marketers: Artists, Soldiers and Gamblers.

Thread 👇

2/ To THE ARTIST, marketing = winning hearts and minds.

It’s about using your work to create a raw, visceral connection w/ people. Things like SEO, budgeting and worrying about organizational design are a necessary evil at best, but mostly viewed as nuisances.

3/ Just as Artists in the “real world”, the successful ones have outsized influence on society. We celebrate Artists who make it, inspiring everyone to become Artists. Of course, everyone ignores the base rates of actually succeeding as an Artist!

4/ To win as an Artist, you’ll need:

Autonomy
Creative freedom
Ability & resources to execute your vision

If you are determined to follow thru on advice you heard from an Artist-type, make sure you have these basic ingredients, otherwise you'll just get frustrated

5/ THE SOLDIER is pragmatic. Marketing = achieving objectives thru working the system + operational excellence.

They say things like “this is not rocket science”. Getting results is just a matter of inputs and outputs, managing your psychology & fighting thru obstacles.

6/ Just as Soldiers in real life, there’s structure and support systems in place. You can turn untrained people into competent marketers. But this structure also means a lot of people can stay mediocre indefinitely. The successful ones see the big picture and work the system.

7/ To win as a Soldier, you’ll need:

Clear objectives
Obvious, scary enemies
Structure, rules, guardrails

If you’re a Soldier-type marketer - or leading a troop of them - then you can set up success by removing ambiguity and making it simple to stay on mission.

8/ THE GAMBLER loves arbitrage. Winning at marketing = finding opportunities with asymmetric upside.

It’s all numbers. Marketing is a vehicle for them to do what they really love: play the game of resource allocation, trying to turn $1 into $100 by outsmarting everyone else.

9/ Like real Gamblers, some are white hat (WSOP players), some are black hat, preying on rubes who don't know any better. Most are hopelessly lost and go from hustle to hustle.

Like Artists, the winners are lionized or vilified, and have a disproportionate influence on society.

10/ To win as a Gambler, you’ll need:

Resources
Freedom to fail

This is why you’ll find Gambler-type marketers thriving in early stage startups (freedom to fail) or larger companies (resources). It’s rare to find a winning Gambler in a mid-size company that's just doing okay.

11/ The moral of the story:

Match advice to your context. There's no one universal set of advice that everyone should follow.

Next time you read "best practices", first consider whether the author is an Artist, Soldier or a Gambler - then filter their advice accordingly.

Read this thread in narrative format:

themarketingstudent.com/artist-soldier…