I always, or nearly always, ask interviewees what they are currently reading. Anything is better than nothing of course: and the real purpose of a question like this is to enable the candidate to ‘open up’ about a subject they care about rather than diligently plough through a prepared spiel about “a time they showed an ability to work well within a team”.
But all that said, assuming our hopeful candidate is reading something, I tend to favour those who admit to reading fiction rather than non-fiction.
Part of that is simply a respect for their bravery. It can be very easy to assume that marketers should spend their time reading marketing textbooks and inspirational stories of silicon valley success.
Something from this category would certainly be a safe answer, or appear one to an ambitious young person interviewing for a dream job alongside yours truly (no laughing at the back please).
So I have some respect for anyone who is willing to volunteer a fondness for Atwood, Zola or anyone in between. But there is more to it than that. I believe that fiction makes all of us better marketers.
In fact, let’s go further. Great works of fiction ARE the marketing textbooks.
Before you conclude that I have entirely taken leave of my senses, ask yourself the “what is marketing?” question. Marketing is communication, persuasion, connection. It is about finding and understanding audiences. It is an art, not a science. It demands an understanding of human beings in all their infinite complexity and confusion.
Now where would you go to get that sort of understanding?
The core skill of marketing is not search engine optimisation, media buying, event management or content generation. It is empathy. And study after study confirms that reading fiction develops empathy.
That stands to reason of course. Repeatedly immersing ourselves in other lives, other cultures, other stories and other perspectives helps us see the world in new ways. It helps us understand what makes people tick, and how and why they behave as they do (often in ways that appear illogical to anyone looking up from an economics textbook).
It is a skill that is sorely missing in many modern marketing teams. The organisation that falls into the trap of talking about their product and its features - rather than how it can help potential customers - does so because it lacks empathy. It has failed to ask (and answer) the "who cares, and why?" question.
And in contrast, all the greatest campaigns of marketing history have started from a deep understanding of human nature. “Just do it” says absolutely nothing about trainers, but it is a canvas on which you can project an infinite amount of hopes, dreams and fears.
If all that isn’t enough to get you reading fiction, here’s one more reason. As marketers, we are storytellers. We might as well learn from the best.
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