There is a rosy view
of the past
that states
the world wasn’t as commerce driven
as it is now.
“If Harper Lee had written
To Kill a Mockingbird
today,
there’s no doubt that
the salesforce
and the marketers
would have pushed
for a catchier title,
probably with better SEO.”
The irony is…
To Kill A Mockingbird
WAS a catchy,
marketing-savvy title
…for THAT time.
The original title
of
To Kill A Mockingbird
was
Go Set A Watchman.
A title like that,
however,
wasn’t marketable.
As historian Wayne Flynt,
a longtime friend of the author,
shares
Go Set A Watchman
was
“a beautiful title
that was probably
wildly out of fashion
in 1960.”
“It would have
never been
used as the first title.
There was not enough
biblical literacy
outside of the South.”
Marketing in the past
doesn’t look
the way it looks now.
People and systems
have changed.
And marketing
in the past was often done
by the creator,
not someone with that
as their sole role.
That gives us the impression
things like titles
and brand names
and marketing campaigns
were artistic decisions,
not business decisions.
But that impression
is often an illusion.
Marketing existed.
Creators were making
business decisions.
We have always
changed things
to best sell our ideas.
Do that today
with no shame.