About

ABOUT ME

My name is Mark Boles and I am a 19 year veteran of the marketing industry in a career touching nearly every discipline from PR to advertising account service and planning, direct marketing, business-to-business and research. From my early days in my career, I’ve always leaned towards strategy and less towards execution but you earn your stripes through execution. I currently run the account service department for the ad agency, UniWorld Group. The opinions here are solely my own.

I’m hardly defined by my experiences in marketing. I’m guided by my life experiences, a unique family, vast and diverse friends and being an observer of people and culture.

I’ve also been a bartender, have worked on a railroad, in a grocery store, as a parking lot attendant and as a lifeguard and swim instructor.  I would say the foundation of my career was probably most defined during two summers working for Puritan Clothing on Cape Cod where I learned the fundamentals of customer service at the hands of a man named Kerry Marchant.

This blog is an opportunity for me to espouse my wisdom on all things related to marketing, business and culture. I do this largely to do a few things. The three most pertinent are to provide some insight into my marketing beliefs and philosophy, create discussion around how the marketing industry has evolved even in the very brief 18 years that I’ve been in it and to confront some personal demons with writing and legacy.

The discipline of writing to me is not easy and I say this having been the only “jock” in the family born to a family of intellectuals and academics. I have legacy issues galore.

My father was a beat generation writer, published before the age of 21 who hung out with the likes of Kurt Vonnegut and Jack Kerouac. Oh and then there’s my grandfather, Whitney M. Young, Jr who was a rather legendary civil rights leader. To say I have issues with legacy is an understatement.

This blog is the result of a process that began with a blog formerly titled, “Loaf of Bread, Container of Milk, Stick of Butter.” It was named after the Sesame Street short which should date me considerably.  As I said, the discipline of writing for me is not easy.  Nevertheless, I’ve plodded on when it felt comfortable never fully knowing whether or not what I was saying was of value.

It’s here where I’d like to credit Grant McCracken, author of “Chief Culture Officer” for taking an interest in my blog, connecting with me and getting me to realize my greatest value is as an observer of culture in relationship to marketing and business.

I’d also like to thank a myriad of friends and family for giving me the confidence to find my voice. In particular I’d like to thank Kate, my Dad for a hint of his DNA, my Mom whose my number one clipping service and networker and a good friend Marian Gibbon, a ludicrously smart woman with tremendous values, business ethics and wonderful design sensibilities who I respect tremendously. You, Marian, have more of a hand in this than you realize. Thanks.

ABOUT THIS BLOG

This blog is simple. It stands as a means to inspire discussions and action surrounding business, marketing and culture. The three are inextricably linked yet as Grant McCracken points out in his book, more often than not, business and marketing decisions are made absent of awareness of culture. And these days, culture is far more complex than ever. I hope with this blog to make it all a little less complex.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog and I look forward to the discourse that I hope to inspire.