ATGthePodcast 131 - Why Marketing Is Broken: A Conversation with Jill Heinze, Saddle-Stitch Marketing

Against the Grain - The Podcast

Today's episode features a conversation with Jill Heinze, Saddle-Stitch Marketing. The interview was conducted by Matthew Ismail, Editor in chief of the Charleston Briefings and Conference Director at the Charleston Conference.

Jill began her career in the library at Virginia Commonwealth University as an outreach person to target and engage undergraduate audiences. Afterwards she studied marketing and has worked in several marketing organizations, mainly in a research capacity. She now works with product companies doing user research as well as doing marketing for those in the information industry in her side business, Saddle-Stitch Marketing. Also, Jill wrote for the Charleston Briefings about her experiences with marketing in libraries.

Jill and Matthew will discuss why marketing is broken. She says there are so many different interpretations of the word "marketing, " and many feel that marketing and communications go hand in hand. She says it is important to have a strong product orientation toward marketing and you have to figure out what people need and how best to deliver it to them. Problems can arise if you think of marketing only as an end to itself. Marketing is a tool kit, and choices and ethics are important. She says we shouldn't try to sell people things they don't need but should redirect our efforts to meet the needs of our users. If we can't understand that or don't care about that, we don't need to be doing what we're doing.