Your Shape Can Make You a Better Marketer

What shape are you? Most people outside of agency might say “I’m an hourglass shape, Pear-shaped or V-shaped” but that’s only defining the outside appearance. Your skills and knowledge can be defined as a shape as well. “T-shaped” people have been getting more prominence of late due to some heavy blogging regarding the subject. So what makes up a T-shaped individual? Here are a list of some defining characteristics:

• They have one, or more core competencies
• The easily branch out into other areas
• They ideally possess traits such as curiosity, empathy and aren’t afraid to ask why
• “T-shaped” people are different than “I-shaped” individuals because the “I” represents individuals who have a core expertise in only one area
• “T-shaped” people differ from “— shaped” where the “—” represents people whose role requires a broad understanding of many disciplines rather than specific knowledge of one

The History of T-shaped People

People with these characteristics have been around forever. We might call the variations of the modern Renaissance man. The term was coined by David Guest in “The hunt is on for the Renaissance Man of computing,” in The Independent, September 17, 1991.

The phrase has since been spread most notably by IDEO’s President Tim Brown in Fast Company Magazine:

We look for people who are so inquisitive about the world that they’re willing to try to do what you do. We call them “T-shaped people.” They have a principal skill that describes the vertical leg of the T — they’re mechanical engineers or industrial designers. But they are so empathetic that they can branch out into other skills, such as anthropology, and do them as well. They are able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behavior that point to a universal human need. That’s what you’re after at this point — patterns that yield ideas.

Don’t do a “T” job with “I” people

Imagine you are creating a multi level marketing plan with various campaigns. If you are an “I-shaped” individual you will be very competent in one area, say traditional advertising, but won’t know much about the other initiatives, online advertising for instance. During the past year we have seen what happens when “I-shaped” individuals create advertising campaigns without having a broad understanding of their overall industry – most notoriously from few car companies. Pontiac’s TV ads which told viewers to “Google Pontiac and discover for yourself”came under scrutiny because the marketing department who created the TV spot did not understand the realm of search engine marketing. Although Pontiac was the first natural result for the brand name query on Google it was not the first listing on the page. Mazda jumped on the opportunity to promote their own competitive line of cars with simple text advertisements done through AdWords, outbidding Pontiac for placement. Amazingly an almost identical situation played out months later when Lexus launched their new model, the 460, with new TV ads and a microsite. The campaign though did not include paid search for the terms “460 degrees” – luckily other luxury car companies did not take advantage of the lack of media placement and Lexus got off the hook easy. Mercedes and BMW must be above buying competing brand terms

A “T-shaped” marketer, with a core expertise and understanding of many related areas, would have known to include search engine advertising as a piece of their overall marketing campaign for Pontiac, Lexus or any other company for that matter. It is best to fill marketing and design agencies with these kinds of people as they have the ability to view the overall picture and are not afraid to ask the hard questions.