Unnecessary Complexity of Unnecessary Complexity

And Job Descriptions Are Marketing, Too

Hello Gobbledeers,

Well, I hope you enjoyed your week off. Specifically, your week off from reading this thing. My wife mentioned to me last week, “I think Gobbledy would be just as good if it wasn’t so long.” So now I’m self-conscious about how long this is. I was just Googling how to embed a survey into the newsletter to see what you, dear reader, think about this. And then I decided I don’t really care (honesty is the best policy!). I hope this week’s newsletter is perfectly Goldilocks.

For this week’s podcast, I spoke with Shirin Oreizy, who runs Next Step, a company that works with marketers to apply behavioral science principles to marketing campaigns. I knew basically nothing about behavioral science before this conversation, and I learned a ton from her. Turns out marketers don’t just have to pull ideas straight-out-o’-their-butts to create campaigns that resonate.

Listen on Apple Podcasts.

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Bucket O’ Fun

A charter Gobbledy subscriber reached out to me recently and said he had a great example of the power of branding. Which was funny because I can count on zero hands** the number of software companies that actually think brand is important. Oh yes, they’ll say that the marketing team needs to think about brand, and when they hire a CMO they will say in the description that a “focus on brand” is one of the top priorities. Then they will question why every dollar isn’t tracked to a lead. (Then they will fire the CMO, then hire another, etc).

**(well, two fingers)

(Whining complete)

Here’s what he sent me:

That is a Home Depot-branded 5-gallon bucket that costs $4.98. It’s made of plastic and, the description notes, features the “original Home Depot logo.” $5 bucks, 5 gallons. Also, it comes in orange.

Then this:

It is a Yeti-branded 5-gallon bucket, built for “getting the job done.” I assume the job that needed being done was flushing $35.02 down the toilet. It comes in “Nordic Blue.” I like how it’s the “bucket you didn’t know you needed,” which is actually great positioning since the bucket you know you needed only cost $4.98.

What’s the power of great branding worth? $35.02.

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More Unnecessary Complexity, Please

Have you ever been looking for some software for your online business and thought to yourself, “Hm, there’s so much easy-to-use software out there that will let me do pretty much whatever I want without much effort. But I wonder if there’s any software out there that will add a whole bunch of unnecessary complexity to accomplish the exact same thing?”

If so, I have some good news. I need to keep the company name out of it, but I found the positioning for this product to be curious (this is from the top of their homepage):

I actually saw that a couple of weeks ago and I thought I mis-read the part about “unnecessary complexity.”

Then I re-read it, and I thought, “that’s quite curious.”

And then, “that’s above the fold on the homepage - has nobody in the company gone to the homepage in weeks?”

And then, “maybe it quite literally doesn’t matter what the hell you put on the homepage (even above the fold) since I would assume (maybe incorrectly?) that the total addressable market for a complete solution with unnecessary complexity would be roughly $0.”

But since this company wrote something equivalent to “there’s no way you’ll ever figure out how to use this” above the fold on their homepage, and nobody has changed it, I really do wonder if copy even matters.

And if it doesn’t matter, what am I doing?

Why has this caused me to have an existential crisis?

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Except That I’m Sure Copy Does Matter, Even in Job Descriptions

Lots of chief marketing officer job descriptions come across my desk, and I just received one that is pretty emblematic of the weirdness often found therein.

I was torn about whether to say which company it is, but it doesn’t appear that they’ve posted the job publicly so I won’t. But it’s in the marketing software space, and it doesn’t really matter since what they’re saying is really no worse than what most other companies write in their job descriptions.

(Though clearly they could use some help with this, and - hey! - that’s what I do for a living. Maybe I’ll reach out to them directly. Also, if you need help with messaging, you know how to reach me.)

Anyway, I’ll share the description, but first I’ll have to set aside the superfluous and absolutely painful random apostrophe in “They are also retaining their employee’s” - a sentence they include in the description for this Chief Marketing Officer role. Yes, let’s set. That. Aside. I definitely won’t keep thinking about it. Nope. I’m. Able. To. Move. On. Yep. Move on. No problem. Not harping on it…

Here’s how they begin the job description:

[Company who doesn’t know when to use an apostrophe] is a market leading developer of a cloud-based cross-channel messaging platform designed to utilize customer data to create personalized, relevant conversations. The company's technology platform combines the power and security of on-premises software with the efficiency and scalability of the cloud and maximizes email deliverability for each customer by assigning dedicated IP addresses, full white-labeling, reputation monitoring, and ISP relationship management, enabling marketers to leverage all of the internal customer data necessary to launch and analyze email campaigns using a full set of live data.

Maybe it’s not obvious, but a job description is a piece of marketing. (Duh? Maybe?). You’re trying to attract a certain type of employee to “buy” that job. You’re selling the job.

Is there anything in that where you think to yourself, “Given all the companies out there, I’d sure like to hitch my marketing wagon to one that tries to sell me on working there by pitching “assigning dedicated IP addresses, full white-labeling, reputation monitoring, and ISP relationship management?”

I get it - it’s a somewhat (ish?) technical (ish?) solution for marketers (maybe?). But still - this is supposed to attract someone who will (per the description):

“Elevate the brand…cut through the noise and…build excitement
in the market”?

Doesn’t seem like it.

Gobbledy is pervasive. When it’s on your website, then it’s in your marketing, then it’s in your recruiting, and it attracts people who are OK writing gobbledy on your website, and in your marketing, and in your recruiting.

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