Marketing is a continued exercise in novelty

Marketing is a continued exercise in novelty. The primary goal of the marketer is to earn attention for their brand by doing noteworthy, original, and unexpected things, creating a continuous stream of reasons for other people to think about you.

There are caveats attached to this definition. Help the audience, and not hinder. Create an obvious segue to the thing that you sell. Avoid selling your future self for the benefit of your present self. But otherwise, I feel very comfortable reducing the endless complexity of marketing down to this one, simple objective.

Be novel, over and over again. If you aren’t up to the task, the continuous reinvention and constant seeking for novelty, you probably shouldn’t be a marketer.