Let’s revisit a hot controversy from the days of yore: WordPerfect vs. Word. I’m not going to lie. I am a tad trepidatious about opening this nerdish can of worms, but excelsior!
I’m old enough to remember cranking out documents on WordPerfect, which the fossil record will show was a popular word-processing software of the 1900s. Heck, I’m old enough to remember my first mind-blowing experience with correction tape on an electric typewriter! But, I’m not a nostalgic fool, pining for the days of wall-anchored telephones and gasoline with lead. Still, WordPerfect’s downfall is the ideal allegory for the point I want to make.
Back then, the battle was between WordPerfect and Microsoft Word. The main dig against WordPerfect? It was supposedly too clunky and unintuitive. But here’s the truth: WordPerfect displayed its editing code, keeping the operation transparent and you in control. In contrast, Word, to this day, has you driving blind, turning the wheel over to the software while you pray that it doesn’t careen off the screen and plow into marginal bystanders. With Word, you fight its obtuse “intuition” as it misaligns your text and mangles your font choices. In contrast, WordPerfect’s transparent operation made fixing formatting woes simple.
So how did the objectively inferior Word end up dominating? Sure some people weirdly preferred it—and I bet I’ll hear from a few of them!—but many of us loathed (and still loathe) Word. One factor in Word’s success may be found in those pesky antitrust allegations against Microsoft, but the bottom line—Word had way better marketing. That’s it. WordPerfect’s actual merit was no match for Microsoft’s marketing muscle.
You can find countless superior products that were out-marketed by junkier versions of the same. My brother still laments the triumph of VHS video tape over Betamax—four decades later! Merit gets crushed by marketing almost every time. To put it succinctly, marketing eats merit for breakfast.
Need more evidence? Ever heard of Liquid Death? Sounds cool, right? It’s gotta be some edgy alcohol or energy drink, right? The company’s superb at positioning and plugging its brand everywhere. I first spotted it in a health food store of all places. As of March 2024, Liquid Death rocked a $1.4 billion-dollar valuation. Must be some great stuff in those cans, right?
If you know Liquid Death, you know the punchline. If not, you may want to dash off now to lay down some bucks for an icy tallboy of Liquid Death. That first sip will shock you into the reality that you just bought an over-hyped can of…water—$1.4 billion water! Marketing eats merit for breakfast.
Or how about this golden oldie? What’s the Wizard of Oz’s big secret? Is he magical or even as “wonderful” as the annoying theme song would have it? No! He’s just an ordinary man wielding way too much power. How does he pull off this charade for so long, then? Yup, marketing! He’s his own hypester. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”—indeed.
And there you have it: marketing eats merit for breakfast, and breakfast is served all day at this, the 24/7 diner of life!
We see this merit-marketing imbalance everywhere, including the workplace. Think of that self-aggrandizing blowhard “colleague” who never did squat but always landed the plum assignments and promotions. You know the one. Yeah, that one. Were they the most deserving? Hell, no! Did they have radioactive dirt on the bosses? Not likely. Then, how’d they pull it off? Relentless self-marketing, that’s how!
Zero talent? no worries. A little shameless shilling alone will take you far. Failing at work? Why, with a some well-placed boasting you can fail upward! It’s true. Under the right circumstances, you only need to be competent in one area: self-promotion.
Now, I’m not saying every successful person is a fraud. Not at all. Many folks earn it fair and square, and some of those are self-promoters and some not. But plenty more would succeed if they marketed themselves better. Meanwhile, countless knuckleheads succeed purely through self-hype and product placement. Marketing eats merit for breakfast.
To be crystal clear, I’m not against marketing in the least. We all need and rely on marketing. We just need to see it for what it is and harness it to serve good, not evil.
Marketing is everything, which is why I would argue we don’t live in a real meritocracy. True excellence isn’t the main reason people rise in our society. Look how often the best, most qualified politicians lose elections. We dismiss them as “boring” while praising malignant dolts as “colorful” and throwing our votes at them at our peril. Need evidence? Here’s just four words: “former Rep. George Santos.” Georgie-boy’s nothing more than a huckster who had no business running for office yet easily bested his highly-qualified opponent anyway. We can all spot deserving-but-overlooked folks being lapped by such bloviating horn blowers, squeaky wheels, and circus clowns.
Here’s some more outrage. I’ve known numerous university presidents—a position of great power, prestige, and overwhelming responsibility that should only go to the best of the best—who were clueless or even malevolent. Yet, they got themselves hired and retained because they arrogantly puffed themselves up for their university boards. Some of these overweening, feckless wonders, even after they flat-out failed, just moved on to other universities to screw them up as well. Marketing eats merit for breakfast.
So, what does all this mean for workplace leaders? For one thing, great leaders need to self-promote strategically. Even the most exceptional leaders will flounder if they don’t market themselves. Moreover, they need to be hyper-aware of marketing’s power and merit’s relatively small influence. When hiring and promoting, resist the flashy self-promoters and ignore their siren songs. Focus, instead, on substantive evidence of performance. And don’t overlook the under-hyped stars.
When I started as a provost at a new university, I discovered a staff member who was stuck in a dead-end role for years. Turns out, she was intelligent, conscientious, hard-working, personable, and highly creative. Her dedication to the institution and student success was extraordinary. She was also humble to a fault, which helped keep her down.
I quickly moved her to a role more suitable to her talents and more visible to the university. As soon as I could, I promoted her. Of course, she flourished, and I made sure everyone knew that she had earned all her success. Never once did she hype herself, though, or even actively angle for advancement.
Leaders need to be on the constant lookout for such untapped excellence. Often the most decent and even wonderful people are the most reluctant to show off at all and are hidden in plain sight.
So, if it isn’t clear, let me reiterate: marketing eats merit for breakfast! For every wonderful WordPerfect, there is a woeful Word to crush it. For every overly ballyhooed Liquid Death, there is some delightful spring water brand struggling for shelf space. For every fraudulent Wizard, there is a Dorothy getting things done.
This dynamic plays out in the workplace as well, which is why great leaders need to see beyond the razzmatazz, lifting up the best over the loudmouthed braggarts. They also must learn to boost themselves so they will survive and succeed. Only then does merit stand a chance against the grind of the marketing machine.
How effectively do you market yourself? How actively do you ignore the hype and elevate merit?
Great leaders have a duty to discover merit amidst the noise of marketing, and I can help.
Unlock the Great Leader Within! Download my free resource, the Transform To GREATness Toolkit, now!
I look forward to hearing from you.
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Now the Truth about Excellence: Marketing Eats Merit for Breakfast