It is hard to be still. I think this is difficult for all of us (including my dog who always wants to play) and it’s probably even more difficult for marketers. For many of us, our minds are always busy. Just yesterday I was buying toothpaste and I stood in the aisle at Target thinking when did toothpaste take over an entire aisle, why are all the packages red and blue, and which one will make my teeth the whitest? I was overwhelmed and maybe initially paralyzed, but not still. Today I stopped in Hallmark to pick up a card and they had Halloween and Christmas ornaments on display!

It is hard to be still. I think this is difficult for all of us (including my dog who always wants to play) and it’s probably even more difficult for marketers. For many of us, our minds are always busy. Just yesterday I was buying toothpaste and I stood in the aisle at Target thinking when did toothpaste take over an entire aisle, why are all the packages red and blue, and which one will make my teeth the whitest? I was overwhelmed and maybe initially paralyzed, but not still. Today I stopped in Hallmark to pick up a card and they had Halloween and Christmas ornaments on display! I can’t even explain my reaction. I guess I was embarrassed as if I was wearing a t-shirt that said, “I’m a marketer and we started this insanity.” Another whole aisle (seriously, not a section – but an aisle) dedicated to merchandise for us to use five months from now. Our industry has made July 4 the day when we promote Christmas.

Now I understand that here in DC we have seasons and that not all areas of the country have the weather changes we experience so needs are different in the various geographic regions but is there really a need or demand for Christmas ornaments in July? Maybe there is a need for 48 varieties of toothpaste.

Who reset the calendar? Did we marketers create all this chaos? Were we responding to stakeholders? Competition? Our own passion for our work? It’s no wonder many of us can’t turn our minds off and be still. There’s a place for certain industries and innovation particularly technology, but I’m not sure that consumer goods and commodities need to be cutting edge, aisle hogs.

Even if we as marketers didn’t create this, we contributed to it and we can chose to be still. Passion or competition or compensation can cause us to not see the forest through the trees but we can change this. We can put our motivations at bay, temporarily, to be still and change the landscape of marketing and how and when we fill the aisles. We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to our customers. Be still. The money will come.