Marketing Conversations: The Secret of Authentic (Self) Marketing

"The evening was very inspiring for me, the speaker and the panelists gave us new insights into the world of (self-) branding. And I learned that we should take good care of the Pippi Longstocking in us, because as adults we often try to regain that authentic, but then reason gets in the way," says Anna Kohler, Publishing Director of MK and Werbewoche (pictured below), looking back on the second staging of the Marketing Talks.

As an author and coach (including "Profil macht Karriere", "Sei frech, wild und wunderbar"), Petra Wüst has been dedicating herself to the basics of authentic self-marketing in her Basel practice for more than fourteen years. In her input presentation, she summarized two important pillars of her work: If you want to be successful, you have to learn to sell your skills ("Unique Selling Proposition") on the one hand, and on the other hand, you have to think about what feelings you want to trigger in the people around you ("Emotional Selling Proposition").

After Wüst's talk, the Zurich folk band "Black Cat's Smoking" took the stage and provided a musical interruption to the program. Asked by Anna Kohler afterwards about their self-marketing, the duo said: "We might adapt a bit for a big record deal and listen to the advice of competent producers -.  but always remain authentic. That means: We will definitely never become a new Justin Bieber and a new Taylor Swift."

The following panel, announced as a fireside chat and unceremoniously turned into a pool talk by moderator Johannes Hapig, brought together three very different players: The 2019 "Advertiser of the Year," Petra Dreyfus, the dress maker and trend expert Gerold Brenner, and Serviceplan Suisse CEO Christian Baertschi. In two blocks, the three brand and marketing professionals first spoke about their own careers and the role authenticity has played in them. Gerold Brenner, who made a fresh start in his career at the age of fifty, recalled: "I was no longer creative, I reached a professional dead end. A cut had to be made. Today I am myself - and that is the most important thing."

Christian Baertschi explained that it is also important from the agency's point of view to remain true to one's own values and not to bend: "A collaboration between client and agency must be built on a good foundation right from the start. If you notice that you're not pursuing the same goals, you have to say right at the beginning - even before a possible pitch - that we don't think the collaboration makes much sense at this point."

When the conversation turned to building authentic brands - and thus left the realm of the personal - Petra Dreyfus revealed some of the basics of her work at Wirz: "I'm always asked how authentic I can be, since an agency is a kind of slave to the client. But my experience shows that clients do want authentic answers. They don't pay me to tell them they're great and doing everything right. They want to have a mirror held up to them and hear an honest opinion."

The official part of the Marketing Talks was followed by an informal and inspiring Apéro Riche, which brought not only cool drinks, but also many good conversations and networking opportunities. The second part of this year's MK Werbwoche event series was - despite the summer heat - a positive harbinger of the third Marketing Talks at the end of September 2019 on the topic "Back to the Future. Marketing between AI, Automation and Influencertum."

Tobias Fueter, Stories, Petra Dreyfus, Wirz and Lisa Melnikova, Swisscom (from left) at the aperitif afterwards. The pictures of the event can be found in Werbewoche 6/7 2019 (Text: Johannes Hapig; Thomas Häusermann; Photos: Thomas Häusermann).

Despite outside temperatures of over thirty degrees, the Kosmos Forum was well filled - almost seventy guests found their way to the event. There, in addition to an input presentation by bestselling author Petra Wüst, they also heard a panel that had been quickly converted into a pool discussion with very different players: Wirz co-CEO Petra Dreyfus, clothing maker Gerold Brenner, and Serviceplan Suisse CEO Christian Baertschi.