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COMMENT
BIG TALK
TOP MARKETERS WHO AREN’T MARKETERS
They may not have been formally trained in the intricacies of marketing, but there are those who
have become true artists at selling both themselves and their brands.
Adam Joseph
Readership director,
Herald Sun Melbourne
It may surprise you to know that some of the best marketing is
done by people who aren’t Marketers with a capital 'M'.
By this, I mean people without “marketing” in their job title;
without a stint in a “marketing” department on their CV; without
a formal “marketing” qualification.
But just because these people wouldn’t call themselves ‘mar-
keters’ doesn’t mean what they do isn’t true to the principles of
powerful marketing.
Great marketing is about customer-centricity. It’s about
delivering the brand promise and delighting consumers through APPLE’S STEVE JOBS IS
A MASTER OF HIS
innovation. OWN MARKETING
It’s about breaking the rules of your category while remaining
true to your brand. It’s ultimately about disrupting markets. Why is Merchant such a great marketer? Quite simply
Professional marketers should be reassured that the list of because this uber-passionate surfer lives the brand. As with
great marketers who aren’t Marketers is not an exhaustive one. Billabong, surfing is in his DNA.
My first example is Steve Jobs. Not a Marketer as such but a Other Australian examples I can think of centre around the
business person with great marketing prowess, who has changed financial services sector: Rob Hunt from Bendigo Bank; John
the game in his sector. Symonds from Aussie Home Loans; and Mark Bouris from
As The Economist magazine recently put it: “Apple excels at Wizard Home Loans (and Apprentice fame).
taking existing half-baked ideas and showing the rest of the First up, let’s look at Rob Hunt. Hunt was a banker that really
world how to do them properly. It has already done this three ‘got’ customer service. Joining Bendigo Building Society as it was
times (with the Macintosh, iPod, and iPhone), now Mr Jobs hopes called in 1973, he spent the next 36 years as the driving force
to pull off the same trick for a fourth time with the iPad.” behind the expansion of Bendigo & Adelaide Bank as it is known
The second example is Simon Cowell, British music executive, today. Hunt was behind the innovative ‘Community banking’
television producer and popular entertainment entrepreneur. model which started in 1998 and has now grown to 250 branch-
From humble beginnings as a mail-room boy in EMI Music es across Australia. This is often held as a shining light of corpo-
Publishing (where, helpfully, his dad worked at the time), his eye rate social responsibility in the banking sector and why I think
for talent propelled him on a mercurial rise through A&R (Artists Rob Hunt is a great marketer: he innovated and disrupted.
& Repertoire) first with EMI and then with Sony BMG. Finally, let’s consider John Symonds. The founder of Aussie
Cowell is one of the best marketers of talent in the global Home Loans initially studied law and then specialised in proper-
popular entertainment industry, with brands like Pop Idol, The X ty and finance. There was not a marketing degree in sight.
Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and American Idol all part of his Symonds shook up the traditional banking sector by offering
repertoire. cheaper mortgages and 24/7 home loans and service. Aussie’s
Honourable mentions here should go to Richard Branson for success paved the way for other entrepreneurs, most notably
embodying the spirit of the challenger brand, and to the late Mark Bouris and Wizard Home Loans.
Anita Roddick for showing marketers how to build brand while In an interview in The Australian last year, Symonds talked
embracing corporate social responsibility. about taking on the big boys and how being controversial was
But what about Australia? Where are the Aussies in this list good for media strategy:
of great marketers who aren’t Marketers by trade? “I was very fortunate in that I had no money to advertise, so I
Gordon Merchant, Billabong founder, would have to be one learned all about marketing yourself – this was by default, not a
contender. Merchant started out in the early 1970s shaping plan … there wasn’t a newspaper in the country, a television sta-
surfboards and making surf clothing with his future wife Rena. In tion or a television current affairs show, which didn’t want to
an interview shortly after Billabong was publicly floated, he said: understand the story better, and I found then the value of mar-
“We started making a few boardshorts and we used to take them keting yourself and being honest and yes, controversial.”
round on a Friday afternoon and sell them to the local surf shops So there you have it – a few suggestions of who I think are
… we didn’t even have any labels on them, it was that archaic … the greatest marketers to have never emerged from the market-
IMAGE: MATTHEW YOHE
after a while people started having a go at me because there ing profession.
were no labels … I honestly believed that if you bought some-
thing you shouldn’t have to go around advertising it.” Adam Joseph is on Twitter at @adamjoseph1
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