Idealist vs. Pragmatic Marketers

In my post yesterday, Take the Test – Are You Left-Brained or Right-Brained, I asserted that marketers

generally fall into two categories: creative, right-brained marketers or analytical, left-brained marketers.  Today, I’m going to elaborate on that theory by saying that marketers can also be broken down in a similar manner as pragmatic marketers vs. idealistic marketers.

Often throughout my corporate career, I would say, “there are do-ers and there are thinkers.”  While I think most people carry some pragmatic and some idealistic traits in terms of their marketing styles and careers, I think that marketers generally lean in one direction or the other.

I fall into the do-er, pragmatic category, although as I get older, I have become more of a thinker.  I recall one of my boss’s, who was an extreme idealist/visionary/thinker marketer, telling me I was too negative when we would discuss a new initiative.  He (as an idealist marketer) erroneously saw my pragmatism as negativity.

My first reaction is always to look at the practical side of a new marketing or business initiative.  It’s not meant to be negative.  I just instantly connect the dots and think of the various impacts, players and potential obstacles a new initiative brings with it.  I don’t think how wonderful a new initiative sounds the first instant I hear of it.  Instead, I think of how to get it done and make it successful.  It’s the pragmatist in me.

While my boss told me I was negative, I thought that as an idealist/thinker marketer he looked at new initiatives through rose-colored glasses ignoring the execution for the prestige of the final deliverable.

Which is better, a pragmatic, realistic marketer or an idealistic, visionary marketer?  [Read more]