My 3 guiding principles of marketing

Marketing often operates as a dichotomy. Either it's a discipline that people don't completely understand or one of the leaders' primary drivers of growth and retention. As you can guess, I am an advocate for the latter. Marketing can be the key to telling a unified story, keeping customers top of mind, and developing an impactful brand. To have an effective marketing approach, I have focused on three principles throughout my career: balance, change, and authenticity.?

?1. Balance: Marketing is both art and science??

One of the reasons that I have dedicated my career to marketing is the complexity of the discipline. There are so many different processes involved; science, psychology, human behavior, data, creativity - it all boils down to finding a combination that drives results. Often, this is either something that organizations comprehend and embrace or don't. To be successful, organizations need to understand their customers as humans with needs, paired with the right mixture of tools and technologies to gain insights and data. Ultimately, these are key to inspiring customer behavior and loyalty.?

?2. Change: Marketing is ever-evolving?

People change how they act, and technology continues to modernize our engagement. This can sometimes leave marketing departments scrambling and frustrated. But if there is one thing constant about marketing, it's this: to do it well; we must keep up. That makes revisiting assumptions challenging how these are always done and finding new channels to reach people. For example, Wiley discovered that we got high engagement on Pinterest, a channel we hadn't used before. Who knew! But we are excited to embrace it.?

?3. Authenticity: Show what you stand for??

An organization's brand reflects who they are and how they show up in the world. We recently underwent our brand refresh. We brought together everything we do, presented it consistently, shared how it all fits together, and helped people see that there's a Wiley for everyone. This resulted in a significant increase in awareness and favorability. I believe this is because we stayed true to who we are, telling the story that is unique to us and the impact we enable.?

?These three principles are what I have followed throughout my career and drive our marketing transformation at Wiley. In the coming months, I'll share more about areas I'm focused on and experiences that have informed my perspective.???

?I want to hear from you! Which of these resonated with you? What elements guide your approach??