Attention all marketers – your country needs you!

I want to skip past the politics quickly, firstly because I want to make a more important point about Brexit and secondly because I know the ‘Remainers’ are really touchy. When the referendum starting gun was fired I wrote a piece for this blog about how the narrative for both sides of the debate might evolve. As always I was trying to present this in such a way as to offer some insight for marketing. Marketing a brand, marketing a political campaign – pretty much the same objective so interesting to see how politicians and their teams go about it. Well sorry for that – as marketers we are required to operate within certain rules along the lines of decency and honesty. Like everyone I was dismayed to see how many indecent lies were spun by both sides. Both played on fear rather than hope – how sad.

Anyway, we have voted to leave the European Union and like our new Prime Minister I believe we need to accept that and turn it into an opportunity. I would emphasize some important facts. We did not vote to leave Europe – physically and culturally that is impossible. We are part of Europe and, whatever it may turn out to be, we will retain, among many other things, a strong trading relationship with our European partners. We now have the opportunity – or necessity, doesn’t really matter – to build even stronger trading relationships with other parts of the world. And we have a more competitive currency – or weaker pound, again it doesn’t really matter how you see it – and that does have an international trade upside. Yes, imports will be more expensive but that can be a boost for local businesses.

Napolean accused of us being a nation of shopkeepers – or traders if you like. I think he meant it as an insult, and I think we should take it as a compliment and hope he was right. Because we need to up our game in international trade.

And that is where marketing can help. I don’t want to be too chauvinistic about this but I think Britain has always had a reputation for high quality marketing. We don’t have a monopoly on this but around the world our brands (and their managers), our agencies (and their creatives and planners) and our marketing techniques and methodologies are highly regarded. We have the talent and we know how to add value through marketing. Do you agree? Well now is the time to prove it.

With a competitive currency and new trade deals being negotiated we need to raise our marketing to even higher levels to take advantage. If I can use just one fairly topical example – in a world of steel over-supply we need to make British Steel distinctive and desirable. How do we do this – surely steel is steel? Well offer me a new Gillette razor with Valyrian steel blades and I will pay more because of Game of Thrones. Yes, I am entirely serious – a totally fictitious product from a fantasy series can command a premium because it is famous and evocative, it has a story behind it.

With no disrespect to the important empirical, analytical and quantitative aspects of marketing I still believe, at the end of the day, our job as marketers is to tell better stories. Better if the story is based on a product or service truth – but as the McCann agency always said, with a Shakespearean flourish, it should be “truth well told”.

If that feels a little whimsical – please can we tell even better stories – let me add one very concrete rallying cry. Can we make British marketing the very best in the world at embracing and leveraging technology? Can we be, for example, world leaders in the use of Virtual Reality, world leaders in ecommerce marketing, world leaders in the commercial use of big data, the internet of things etc etc.

By the way, if you believe the Behavioural Economists and I am starting to, then there is nothing whimsical about story telling – it reflects an advanced understanding about how the brain processes information and how we make choices. We should be world leaders in that too.

Whatever your views about Brexit, get over it, we are where we are. The need to address a problem of our own making or the opportunity to change the rules and boost our economy – however you see it, seize the day. Marketers of Britain – your country needs you!