Why Marketing Needs More Introverts

Susan Cain’s book “Quiet” has provided wonderful insight to me, because I am an introvert. Cain’s core premise is that western culture overvalues extroverts and under-utilizes introverts. Introverts prefer less stimulation and quiet concentration. We listen more than we talk, think before we speak, and focus on relationships. Introverts focus on the meaning of events around us, while extroverts focus on the events themselves.

If I had to bet, the best marketers of tomorrow will likely be far more introverted than the average marketer is today. I would even argue that marketing needs more introverts—people who will spend more time listening than talking, reflecting deeply on meaning, and building fewer, deeper relationships.

Three fundamental trends will drive this.

European Debt Crisis

What is European debt crisis? It is the failure of Euro, the currency that unites together 17 European countries in an intimate but flawed manner.

Over the past 3 years, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain have all fallen down to the brink of collapse, threatening to bring down the entire continent and the rest of the world. How did it happen?

For most of Europe's history, it's been in a war within itself. Countries at war with each other tend to do less business with each other. Europe was always a continent of trade barriers, tariffs and different currencies. Doing business across borders was difficult. You needed to pay a fee to exchange currencies, and you needed to pay tariff fee to buy and sell to the companies in other countries. That tendered to stifle economic growth.