I've always liked the "fishing" analogies in marketing.
In them, people working on the brands are fishermen, their potential customers – the fishes, and the message – the bait. Although a bit rude, for me these analogies are very useful, because they help us look at our work "from the side" and see more clearly the challenges we face when creating our messages and communication.
In marketing, we are fishermen, but in life we are fishes and sometimes we find it difficult to distinguish between the two roles and to "muffle" our own needs, desires and preferences.
For me, the hardest thing in the profession remains the adherence to the basic rule that "The bait must be delicious to the fish and not to the fisherman!". Sounds simple, but it's not easy. This requires two things:
First - to invest time, efforts and skills to find out who our best customers are and how we can most successfully attract their attention and interest. Different fish peck at different bait and swim in different waters.
Second - to have the discipline and the courage to "turn off" our own taste, so that our communication can meet the needs and values of our potential clients, not our personal ones - and thus solve their problems, speak their language and meet them in "their waters '.
Fishermen always know beforehand what fish they want to catch and where they can find it, they carry special bait and the right size of hooks. They are not particularly concerned with what other fishermen want to catch and try to be best prepared for "their own" fish.
This is the most important thing in marketing too.