It’s Eclipse Season, Mercury is in retrograde, the North Node is in Aries and there’s that Venus-Saturn conjunction that just happened. No matter where you fall on the spectrum of woo (that’s astrologer talk for believing in horoscopes and such), much can be learned from the spirit of horoscopes and the cyclical nature of the moon.
Yes, even for the savviest, most seasoned of marketers.
So allow the stars to dance in your eyes and behold these three lunar lessons in marketing.
The Moon Teaches about Finding Shared Meaning
Understanding how your marketing strategy intersects with where your team and audiences find meaning for lives can hold the inspiration you need to move your program forward through the charms and challenges that can throw even the most accomplished teams askew such as competing priorities, marketing campaign flops, crises, budget cycles, and organizational shifts.
Recently the organizational psychologist Adam Grant wrote a piece debunking horoscopes which included pointing out that the moon has no impact on human behavior. We are not here to disagree with that. We are, however, pointing out that a shared belief or value can help you understand how cultural and organizational events influence your team. If superstitions with your team are strong, there’s no sense fighting it. These connection points offer insight into where your team finds meaning and how that translates into the experiences, products or services that you provide.
The Moon Teaches about Push and Pull
According to Nasa, “The Moon makes Earth a more livable planet by moderating our home planet’s wobble on its axis, leading to a relatively stable climate. It also causes tides, creating a rhythm that has guided humans for thousands of years.”
Just as the Moon’s gravitational pull influences the tidal patterns of the ocean, there are factors within our organizations that create push and pull that impact our marketing programs. Internal priorities shift, acquisitions and reorgs happen and budgets get cut. As we feel the push and pull of these things that are beyond our control, it’s our role to figure out how to move our marketing efforts through what feels like a tidal shift. After all, planning is priceless but plans are useless. With a strong strategy in place, pay attention to the push and pull and its impact on your marketing efforts and adjust accordingly.
The Moon Teaches about Story
Thinking through the lens of the moon and all of its phases inspires storytelling. When astrologers tell us what is happening based on the cycle of the solar system, we place ourselves in that story thereby investing in the narrative. We can borrow a page from the astrology playbook and craft content that is specific enough to strike a chord with our audiences, while still being open enough so they can find ways to see or insert themselves into the story.
The moon also teaches us about the cyclical nature of things. Moon cycles also have beginnings, middle and ends, retrogrades can be disruptive and eclipses can be times of transformative change and growth. When planning campaigns, navigating workplace politics or facing circumstances that are out of our control keep in mind that nothing lasts forever and then recalibrate. As marketers, our role is to develop agile strategies, adapt as needed and leverage insights so we can pivot the narrative as necessary.
Marketing Beyond the Moon
At SiteCrafting, our marketing team gets a little woo sometimes. That means we share our horoscopes, pull tarot cards and occasionally check the status of the moon. It does not drive our marketing strategy but it does provide opportunities for us to connect as humans and make room for all that entails — including our feelings.
As astrologer Jessica Lanyadoo recently put it on her episode of Ghost of a Podcast, “The Moon is all about our feelings. That’s what it’s about. We are meant to feel our emotions, not analyze our emotions, not prepare for our emotions, not protect our emotions before we experience them. What we’re meant to do is feel them.”
Marketing by the moon isn’t about the moon after all — it’s about connection, embracing beginnings and ends, going with the ebbs and flows and leaning into the tension of the modern workplace. It’s also about placing people at the center of your strategy so that you can move your marketing program through proverbial retrogrades, eclipses and transits of all kinds.
