Quick Tip

2 Types of Marketers

There are 2 types of people in the world.

Those who divide the world into groups of 2. And those who don't.

Isaiah Berlin came up with 2 groups back in 1953 when he published his book The Hedgehog and the Fox.

The basic idea came from an Ancient Greek poet who said

"... a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing."

Berlin was using the idea as an intellectual exercise to divide writers and thinkers into 2 groups:

  1. hedgehogs - who view the world through the lens of a single, big idea and
  2. foxes - for whom the world cannot be boiled down to one idea

Since then, people have used these groups to classify everything from investors to "moral truth."

It became a cocktail-party game after Berlin's essay was published as a book in 1953.

They didn't watch cat videos on YouTube back then.

Now, I'm sure you thought I was the kind of guy who sits around reading philosophy essays in between attending the opera.

But I came across it in some marketing material about investing.

The writer spoke of the importance of knowing yourself and your tendencies when it comes to investing.

He classified Warren Buffet as a hedgehog. Someone who believed in a unifying principle - and worked it repeatedly.

Investors who are foxes, on the other hand, pursue a variety of opportunities.

One is not inherently better than the other. The important part is knowing who you are.

Are you guided by "one big thing" or "many things"?

You can apply the same thinking to marketing.

Fox marketers like to pursue lots of different marketing strategies and tactics.

Hedgehogs pick one or two marketing activities and do them over and over again.

One approach isn't inherently better than the other.

But...

In my experience over the last 15 years is that the most successful small business owners...

Particularly the ones who wear multiple hats in addition to their marketing hat...

Tend to be hedgehogs.

But I'm curious, which one are you?

Hit reply and let me know.

Yours for smarter marketing,

Bill

913.962.9261

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Thanks for reading.

Bill

913.962.9261


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