SPIN 101

Marketing tends to get a bum-wrap. I get it. I really do. We're not curing cancer. Or saving lives. Some marketing is grossly misleading. Or it can be offensive. It can play on people's vulnerabilities - FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Both are oldies but goodies. Or it just plain sucks. But I find comfort in knowing that marketing is not the most hated profession in the world. According to research, we REALLY hate  (in order): politicians, car salesmen, stockbrokers, bankers and real estate agents. Thank God for real estate agents otherwise we'd be in the top five. My point is: there are bad apples in every bunch and marketing is no exception. But most of us are alright. 

Some time ago I worked for a multinational IT company. It was a great place to work. And then it wasn't. The company had announced a 'roadmap' to get to an earnings per share target. The problem was revenue was heading south, not north. The solution was cost-cutting. Redundancies. Thousands of people every quarter until they got to their damn target. When they did, the executives slapped themselves on the back, thanked those of us who were left, and announced another 'roadmap'. And that's where Spin came from. A company's slow burn death spiral. The spinning moral compass of a young marketer who may just need to sell his soul to survive in that environment. The marketing spin we love to hate. Put all that in a blender, add some spices, remove any artificial sweetener, and the result looks something like a 280 page novel called Spin. This book won't cure cancer or save lives. But if it entertains, it will have done its job.   

Of course, it's a complete work of fiction.

MICHAEL FIDLER