Tuesday 2¢ - Vincent Van CMO

Was Vincent as tortured as this week's analogy? You decide..

I’m in southern Spain on vacation, and I am trying to take a bit of a complete break, which for those that follow means a break from the Rockstar CMO podcast, but no break for you when it comes to me twisting an analogy, as I’ve just been to the Vincent Van Gogh experience in Estepona.

I’ve just returned, inspired to write a Tuesday 2¢, laptop open on the balcony, a very cold beer about to be poured. Not sure this missive was exactly the inspiration the curators had in mind, but it’s a very fine experience.

However, you don’t need a 360 immersion in the sunflowers to know that, famously, commercial success did not come during Van Gogh's lifetime. He sold one painting before his sister-in-law picked up evangelizing the value of his work after his and his brother’s deaths.

And as if to underscore what many of my friends say about needing a hobby (or maybe a life) outside of marketing, I thought that sounds like something Jon Evans said on the Uncensored CMO podcast:

"By the time the marketing has worked, the CMO has been fired.”

Now, the interesting thing about the podcast quote is that it was recorded live, and someone from the audience says to Jon, “That happened to you.” I wish I knew that story.

Much of the work of a CMO is not just the low-hanging fruit, but planting the orchard for tomorrow, which of course gives me the opportunity to mention the classic “Long and Short of It” by Les Binet and Peter Field, but also an excuse to mention a future classic, the What's Broken in GTM and How To Fix It podcast, of which I was a guest and had this very discussion.

I admit, a lot of these types of discussions I’ve had were in the echo chamber of marketing, we lament together about how our tortured artistic souls are misunderstood, but the co-host of the show (alongside my chum Simon Daniels), Louis Fernandes, is a sales leader, resulting in what I thought was an interesting discussion about how sales and marketing are operating to slightly different time horizons.

And yet, of course, demand generation is holding the whip hand right now, and it’s increasingly challenging to build something with longer-term outcomes.

No spoilers here on how that conversation went, I believe that episode will go live in a couple of days. Just follow the What's Broken in GTM and How To Fix It page.

Then, of course, back to Mr. Van Gogh, there's the value of the art itself. It’s a fickle business predicting what will resonate with cultural consumers and capturing the zeitgeist while you’re alive (or not fired) to benefit from it.

The ad widely considered the greatest of all time is the famous Apple 1984 ad by Chiat/Day, which did not show the product, but was all brand and vision.

However, the same agency was responsible for Apple’s ads the year before, running a campaign extolling the features and functions of the Lisa computer, with the same budget and the same agency, yet largely forgotten.

Now there is a deeper discussion about product and market fit at the time, but do you own an Apple product because it wins on a checklist of features and functions?

No, that fizzle of desire is called brand.

Anyway, that’s my thought for this week, time for that beer - or maybe in tribute to the great artist, an absinthe…. ;-)