Thought Leadership Marketing: Attaining vs. Claiming

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Dana VanDen Heuvel

Genuine thought leadership marketers usually come to the position of ‘thought leader’ through the application of original thought, not just through extensive marketing and big budgets.  In fact, the most inspiring element of true thought leadership marketing is the ability of smaller ethical firms with a powerful point of view outdo their less transparent competitors who often have much larger budgets.  These firms attain thought leadership by attracting customers and followers who bestow that position upon them.

That brings us to the question of the day.  Is thought leadership something that we can simply claim and make it so, or must it be attained through putting the organization through the paces required to earn the status of thought leader?  Let’s first look at the definitions.

Claim
–verb (used with object)

  1. to demand by or as by virtue of a right; demand as a right or as due: to claim an estate by inheritance.
  2. to assert and demand the recognition of (a right, title, possession, etc.); assert one’s right to: to claim payment for services.
  3. to assert or maintain as a fact: She claimed that he was telling the truth.
  4. to require as due or fitting: to claim respect.

Attain 
–verb (used with object)

  1. to reach, achieve, or accomplish; gain; obtain: to attain one’s goals.
  2. to come to or arrive at, esp. after some labor or tedium; reach: to attain the age of 96; to attain the mountain peak.
  3. to arrive at or succeed in reaching or obtaining something (usually fol. by to or unto): to attain to knowledge.
  4. to reach in the course of development or growth: These trees attain to remarkable height.
This discussion gets even more interesting as you look into the etymology of each work from around the 1300′s. Claim essentially means “to cry out or to shout” while attain means “”to succeed in reaching or to touch, to arrive at”.  Sounds a lot like advertising (push) vs. attracting (pull) to me!
If we agree that thought leadership marketing requires leading thoughts on problems that a firm’s product or service can solve, coupled with a unique and differentiated point of view, and not just excessive “telling”, then it’s clear that firms which are considered thought leadership marketers have attained that position within the tribe or community that they serve, as well as among their peers, competitors and the industry at large, and have not simply ‘claimed’ that they are thought leaders because they believe it to be so in their own minds.
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  • Byron E. Waterman, Ed.D.

    Thought leadership seems to rely much on the concept of being right and planning intelletually as opposed to the hands-on, trial and error, approach. An entrepreneurial approach is both personally and financially rewarding. Entrepreneurship teaches you ways to approach goals and obstacles that bring out the skills needed for success in any venture – it tests your adaptability, creativity, resilience, and vision for what you want to accomplish. Learn more about the benefits of the experience of entrepreneurialism on your personal success at http://www.roadtoriches.com.

  • http://www.marketingsavant.com/2009/07/thought-leaders-as-problem-finders/ Thought leaders as problem finders | The MarketingSavant Group

    [...] on embracing some core values such as these, and living by them each and every day. In order to attain thought leadership status in your industry, you need to work each and every day on these values and incorporate them [...]