The 3 Signs of a Passionate Marketer

What does it take to be a successful, passionate marketer?

A loud voice? An extravagant character? An immense passion for jumping on every stage and shining?

When I applied to my first brand manager role for Coca-Cola in Belgium, this was mostly the core of the feedback received from the HR recruiter. I was on the wrong side of all these personality traits, so my career with Coca-Cola ended before it started.

I believed then and still do now that a successful, passionate marketer is enthusiastic about 3 things design, consumers, and change.

Design, consumers, and change

Ordinary people don’t want ads; they ignore them, block them, and pay as little attention as possible to them. We know that.

Beautiful design can draw attention, artistic design can unlock emotions, and functional design can solve problems. Design is vital for passionate marketers.

Consumers are people; do you understand them well? Do you know their behaviors beyond the attitudes they expose? Do you oversimplify their natural complexities to segment them for your easy thinking process? The consumer is your wife, your distant cousin, your billionaire, or the person who irons your shirt. Please get to know them better and get to know their needs, but do so in a non-intrusive way.

Change is inevitable in the business world. Get ready to make plans and change plans every single day. Your market is shifting, your stakeholders are changing their minds, your consumers are evolving, and you must know how to pivot. Elegantly adapting your execution to better deliver on the strategy is a requirement for successful marketers.

The rest will come in easily if you are passionate about design, consumers, and change.

You will shine on stage because your messages will be crisp, consumer-centric, and relevant to the times.

You will start talking about what you do with passion and expose your fascinating character.

You need to find that voice to accompany all that.

Good luck, introverted marketer be passionate.