Marketing Re-Imagined: David Gerhart On How We Can Re-Imagine The Marketing Industry To Make It More Authentic, Sustainable, And Promote More Satisfaction
An Interview With Drew Gerber
Build communities — this is a trend in marketing right now of course, but it’s very true. It’s also the most high-level of the 5 ideas I have here as it speaks to the idea of “purpose-points.” The psychology here is that most people want to be part of something, and if you can build something that achieves a noble mission, people will want to be part of it. I think the Crypto boom was a massive example of the viral power of communities aiming towards a vision or purpose.
From an objective standpoint, we are living in an unprecedented era of abundance. Yet so many of us are feeling unsatisfied. Why are we seemingly so insatiable? Do you feel that marketing has led to people feeling unsatisfied and not having enough in life? If so, what actions can marketers take to create a world where people feel that they have enough, and they are enough? Can we re-imagine what marketing looks like and how it makes people feel?
In this interview series, we are talking to experts in marketing and branding to discuss how we might re-imagine marketing to make it more authentic, sustainable, and promote more satisfaction. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing David Gerhart.
David leads demand generation for a B2B health tech product, Smart Omix by Sharecare. He is a former consultant with a creative itch and a passion for category defining products. David is an avid golfer, drummer, and sports fan, and you can follow along with his thoughts @davidjgerhart on Twitter.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to know how you got from “there to here.” Inspire us with your backstory!
Thanks a ton for having me here. I started my career in consulting working on enterprise technology strategy and execution. I moved away from services and onto a product team at the firm which was building a B2B digital upskilling product. I quickly realized that I enjoyed thinking strategically about product experience, and even further, about the path to achieve mass adoption. I’ve always been fascinated by behavioral psychology and economics, so the natural curiosity paired with the B2B product background really steered me down the demand generation path. I took two things I really loved and found a role where they merged.
What lessons would you share with yourself if you had the opportunity to meet your younger self?
I would tell myself every day that the “standard path” or the status quo isn’t real. You can do anything you put your mind to, and you can build your lived experience in any way you choose. I think people can get really caught up with living lives that society tells them to live, and often miss out on the things that would bring joy to the child in them. The lesson in that is really just to be your authentic self and be curious, you’ll learn a ton as you get older and you’ll figure out exactly what you want your life to look like on your own — you don’t need norms or social media to tell you that.
None of us are able to experience success without support along the way. Is there a particular person for whom you are grateful for that support to grow you from “there to here?” Can you share that story and why you are grateful for him or her?
Not one, but two. My parents have always encouraged me to do the things I think I can’t do. They’ve believed in me in every risk I’ve taken, challenged me to learn, grow, and to always take a lesson away from any situation — successes and failures. They like to keep me grounded as sometimes I can be an idealist, but they’re in my corner no matter what and that support alone means the world to me.
What day-to-day structures do you have in place for you to experience a fulfilled life?
I do my best to engage with three main pillars of my life on a regular basis. Health, Self-improvement, and Family (and Friends). I think Health is obvious — we can’t make the impact we want to on the world if we aren’t here. Both mental and physical well-being are crucial here. Self-improvement is work related and professionally tied, where I want to be learning something new daily and improving myself and my expertise. Family and friends are so important — they’re the people truly on your side and there’s nothing better than sharing time with those closest to you.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think it might help people?
I think Smart Omix is the most exciting project I could imagine working on. Currently, widespread access to collecting real-world data is limited to companies with large headcounts and research budgets. Our mission is to democratize high quality clinical research, bringing powerful technology tools to every researcher, whether they sit at companies, academic institutions, and for individual researchers. This changes the game of clinical validation for all researchers, allowing them to save time, save money, win more grants, and solve more problems.
Ok, thank you for sharing your inspired life. Now let’s discuss marketing. To begin, can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority on marketing?
Absolutely — I started my career in B2B services / product, then went to a boutique digital agency focused on a variety of different client verticals. I learned the stack of digital demand generation and what it meant to give a business a real marketing presence. From there, I arrived in my current role leading strategy and execution of marketing and demand generation functions. I spend my days mobilizing teams to create valuable content for our audience and thinking through how our product roadmap aligns with our marketing strategy.
Throughout history, marketing has driven trade for humans. What role do you see that marketing played to get human societies where we are today?
Great question — marketing has played a huge role in getting us where we are today, both directly and indirectly. I think one of my favorite sentiments is really that “everything is marketing.” A social media influencer touting a product is marketing, but a tech founder leading a Series A fundraise for their company is also marketing. As much as humans like to believe we are always logical beings, emotion plays a massive part in driving decision making, and marketing is really all about invoking human emotion. I think marketing has directly contributed to some of the mental health challenges that face our world, as people are constantly experiencing FOMO and comparing themselves to others. But I also think that marketing has led to the adoption of truly great innovations — my mind goes to the electric vehicle as an example. It’s a double-edged sword of creating excitement.
I work in marketing so I’m very cognizant of this question. What role does marketing play in creating the human experience of “I don’t have enough” even when basic needs such as food, shelter, and clothing are met?
A direct role no doubt. We are just constantly flooded with things that marketers tell us we “need.” You “need” this to sleep better at night, you “need” this to bring more sales to your business, etc. I think it’s really a challenge to filter through all the noise we are given daily and keep our priorities of wants aligned. Except for a few people, it’s generally not feasible to go everywhere and have everything, so I think the exercise is in prioritizing your wants in light of all of the marketing that’s put in front of you.
What responsibility do marketers have when it comes to people feeling that they aren’t enough?
I think to say it’s solely the responsibility of “Big Marketing” would be a little harsh, so I won’t say that. I think people have their own responsibility to think for themselves and be their own person. That being said, I think the constant flood of marketing that people receive is extremely exhausting — constantly having to defend against buying decisions because of your limitations is hard. It makes you feel like “why can’t I buy this when they can.”
Many 21st-century marketing professionals in a capitalistic society will discuss solving human “pain points” as a way to sell products, services, and other wares successfully. In your opinion or experience, has aggravating pain points led to more pain?
Interesting question. I think it can. I’m imagining a lot of B2C health products that are certainly not 100% effective. I think part of the reason I find that problematic is that “pain” isn’t always something that’s clinically, or otherwise, validated. If there’s a pain point that motivated someone to buy an expensive product, and it works for someone else but not for them, it might lead to more pain as a result of feeling like there’s no solution for their problem. This isn’t always true, as many of these products don’t work for everyone but are marketed like a cure all.
Different cultures view trade/marketing differently. While some may focus on “pain-points” others may focus on “purpose-points”. How do other cultures differ in how they approach marketing? Please give examples or studies you may know about.
I don’t have a great answer for this — I can talk about purpose points and will also get into that in the next question. As stated, a large degree of marketing is about appealing to an emotion in a buyer. I’m not sure why that emotion has always been pain or fear. I think it’s because those are inherently the strongest motivators, but I think we are learning over time that purpose-built companies appeal to an audience just as well. Defining a purpose and a mission and rallying an audience/community that can provide different emotions — joy, fulfillment, surprise — might prove to be just as effective as speaking to pain points as time goes on.
Okay, fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview: It seems as if we have never stopped to question marketing. In your opinion, how can marketing professionals be more responsible for how their advertising shapes our human experience of feeling safe, secure, and knowing that we matter? Based on your experience or research can you please share “Five Ways We Can Re-Imagine The Marketing Industry To Make It More Authentic, Sustainable, And Promote More Satisfaction”?
- Build communities — this is a trend in marketing right now of course, but it’s very true. It’s also the most high-level of the 5 ideas I have here as it speaks to the idea of “purpose-points.” The psychology here is that most people want to be part of something, and if you can build something that achieves a noble mission, people will want to be part of it. I think the Crypto boom was a massive example of the viral power of communities aiming towards a vision or purpose.
- Help your audience — there is nothing more important in marketing than establishing a trust between your brand and your audience. The best way to do this is to create content or valuable information that your audience can benefit from, regardless of whether they use your product or not. At Smart Omix by Sharecare we create things like guides on writing winning grants to help our audience navigate the waters with our experience.
- Meet your audience where they are. It’s so hard to motivate a buyer to buy something, let alone something they don’t fully need. It’s super important to understand your audience and the challenges they have to best align a solution. Selling a one-size-fits-all solution is becoming a thing of the past as people are getting increasingly savvy at understanding their needs. Understand your audience and meet them at their current challenges.
- Ignore vanity metrics. There are tons of metrics people use to gauge the quality of a product or service that may not matter as much today as they used to. For example, it’s becoming clear that having a lot of followers on social media does not equate to a trusted brand. While it can mean that, it’s important to look at engagement and the quality of interactions. Quality over quantity applies here. I’d much rather focus on meaningful customer interactions and feedback at all points of the customer lifecycle than simply how many interactions we can create.
- Finally, and most importantly today — just be real. Authenticity is proving to be one of the most important and surely effective ways to build trust with an audience. Don’t just post on social media about your wins, talk about your losses, your challenges, your learnings. We are seeing a growing cohort of founders and leaders choosing to “build in public.” I think this is one of the coolest tends in marketing as it truly documents a journey not just an outcome. To make marketing more authentic, people need to see the whole story, not just the flashy wins. By seeing an entire journey whether that’s a health and fitness journey, or building a tech company, they see the realities that go with it, and can understand what to expect along the way versus just the outcomes they’re used to seeing.
For you personally, if you have all your basic needs met, do you feel you have enough in life?
Definitely not. It’s something I grapple with a lot. I grew up in a small town in rural Pennsylvania so I’m not hard to entertain and can have fun doing just about anything. But I’m a very curious person — I want to try everything and see the world to understand more about how things work in the world around me. So maybe I’d rephrase that to, I feel like if my basic needs are met I have enough, but I don’t just want enough.
Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or resources that have inspired you to live with more joy in life?
There’s an awesome book called Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen. It’s an elementary level read, but one that tells an awesome story of an angry teenager who learns to find peace, happiness, and forgiveness in life. It’s a quick read, but it has a lot of hidden gems that apply to everyone’s trials and tribulations they face.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I love this question! I’m going to echo the “build in public” notion from the question above. It is an element of realness and authenticity I don’t think the world had access to before. I think with platforms like Twitter, Discord, etc. people can share their journey of anything and everything. I have followed people building B2B SaaS products on Twitter, and I have followed musicians launching their first single or debut album. A lens into their creative process or the building process creates an added element of trust and brand loyalty that I think every business or creator would stand to benefit from.
What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?
Follow me on Twitter @davidjgerhart or go subscribe to the Smart Omix newsletter!
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.
About The Interviewer: For 30 years, Drew Gerber has been inspiring those who want to change the world. Drew is the CEO of Wasabi Publicity, Inc., a full-service PR agency lauded by PR Week and Good Morning America. Wasabi Publicity, Inc. is a global marketing company that supports industry leaders, change agents, unconventional thinkers, companies and organizations that strive to make a difference. Whether it’s branding, traditional PR or social media marketing, every campaign is instilled with passion, creativity and brilliance to powerfully tell their clients’ story and amplify their intentions in the world.
Marketing Re-Imagined: David Gerhart On How We Can Re-Imagine The Marketing Industry To Make It… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.