The Biggest Marketing Challenge of 2012: How Can You Keep Your Job?

Jonathan Salem Baskin The New Year promises to be full of events of monumental importance, ranging from a U.S. presidential election to the possible end of the world. But nothing will be more important to every self-respecting marketer than staying employed for another 12 months. It won't be easy, as the successes of this holiday selling season come with hefty costs to brand integrity (see my last essay) and profit margins. On top of that , most of you are going to be asked to do better, and differently, in a worse economic environment, with less money. And those pesky holidays will come back again at the end of it, assuming that Mayan calendar catastrophe doesn't happen. My not-so audacious prediction is that it's going to be tough to keep your job, which means you've got carte blanche to put in place some New Year's resolutions that can help you stay employed. I'm talking about making big changes, though not the obvious ones -- like going for that kooky social campaign that you rejected this year because it didn't connect to anything tangible in our physical universe. Your agency can't give you a bigger creative idea that 'll change the game, since using big ideas isn't a game-changer anymore but standard operating procedure. I don't think you can up the ante on challenging your fellow C-suiters to understand more (or complain less) about how hard you work to perpetuate the brand. No, let's say 2012 will be the year you stop trying to convert your CEO or CFO into a true believer and instead challenge some beliefs of your own. Here are four resolutions to consider:

The Biggest Marketing Challenge of 2012: How Can You Keep Your Job?

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