The reason I am on the growth hacking crash course is because I am no longer interested in doing marketing as usual. I want to find out the best way of creating an explosive reaction to products and services that induces virality, growth and market domination.
Mattan Griffel’s definition is spot on:
“The best way to understand growth hacking and what growth hackers do is to first understand what is meant by the term hacker. A hacker is someone who is more concerned with achieving an objective than following a prescribed process. In other words, hackers care more about what needs to get done than how it should get done. As a result, hackers often come up with innovative ways to get things done.
"A growth hacker is a hacker whose objective is to grow the number of users for a specific product. While lots of people consider user growth to be a marketing function, this assumes that there’s only one way to get users (namely, marketing). But this isn’t true. In fact, more and more over the last few years we’ve seen new products grow from zero to millions of users with little to no marketing at all.”
Executing digital marketing campaigns within the frameworks of the strategies and traditions of yesteryear simply cannot achieve this.
Digital marketing has been stretched to its limits and there is need to revisit its premises and look at ways of rewriting the rules and breaking ranks with certain principles. Why is this necessary? Competition has become fierce and campaigns are now more expensive to run. Other issues like viewability, ad fraud and ad blocking have compounded the situation. What is needed now is a radical departure from the norm and safety of stereotypical marketing. This explains my revolutionary paradigm shift. As I mentioned above, "doing" marketing as usual is a cul de sac that no longer fascinates me. I have a mission.
All I want to do now is grow brands into dominating positions using a cross-section of multidisciplinary practices. I am following the footsteps of the pioneers of growth hacking who grew start-ups, albeit with limited resources, into multi-billion enterprises within months! Those who think in straight lines cannot go beyond corners. Why take the road that spends thousands of dollars and tries to bludgeon the audience into submission via intrusive campaigns when creative thinking can create a self-perpetuating marketing machine? Whilst other marketers love to position themselves as artists, I am thinking: hey guys, let's transform ourselves into scientists who leverage multi-disciplinary approaches and execute campaigns that unlock real value.
We cannot be narcissists and pose as brilliant ninjas when our campaigns don't create a dent on the bottom-line in the same way growth hacking transformed hotmail, airbnb, Groupon, Pinterest and Instagram!
