Categories: Articles

Marketing The Unmarketable

When really thinking about the many new tools and platforms that are available for Marketers to connect to consumers, we may have to embrace the idea that – in the end – we’re trying to "market the unmarketable."

Nearly nine years ago I joined a company called Airborne Entertainment (the company is now called Airborne Mobile). My stint there only lasted a year, but one of my bosses at the time was Andy Nulman (the guy behind the infamous Just For Laughs comedy festival, Blogger & author of Pow! Right Between The Eyes and a close friend). The idea behind Airborne Mobile was to bring big brands to the small screen. It was everything from jokes to very simple games. This company had a vision that brands would need a solid strategy around being on (and in) mobile devices. It’s amazing to think that back then the carriers didn’t much care for data usage. Voice usage and consumer churn to other carriers was what was keeping them up at night.

Any ideas we had for marketing brands on mobile devices were practically ignored.

So, if the carriers weren’t all that interested and brands were humouring us to see what the market was like, how did the company grow the way it did (the company went on to do quite well)? New technology and platforms were (and still continue to be) a long and hard struggle, but on my last day at Airborne Mobile, Nulman said something that stuck with me to this day:

"We are trying to market the unmarketable."

There are two challenges that new technology, platforms and content bring:

1. The industry it serves is not prepared or doesn’t believe in it.

2. Consumers have no idea what it is for and claim they would never use it.

We’ve seen it countless times before, we’re seeing it now and we’re going to see it again.

People questioned why they would need a telephone, they questioned why they would need a computer, they questioned why they would need more than 500 songs on a music player, they said they would never watch video on a two-inch screen, and they questioned everything else that is now commonplace in our lives (I’m fairly certain there were those who questioned the need for indoor plumbing back in the day).

It’s important to always remember that the minute something new comes out (and even when it’s not so new), we’re always going to be faced with "marketing the unmarketable."

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.