Marketers Continue to be at War with People - Uwe Hook - MediaBizBloggers

You go to any marketing conferences and within minutes you feel the urgent need to duck and cover: There are battles for market share and share of voice. People are targets, we have campaigns that include guerilla strategies. If you aren’t cautious, you’ll be surprised by a marketing blitz. And, just like the military, marketing tries to understand our brains, wants to predict human intent.

The reason why we use this language is very clear: The Mad Men of the 1950’s at Madison Avenue had returned from WWII or the Korean War. They transferred military language to their new endeavors. It might have been a good fit during the age of passive consumers and corporate mass media dominance. Not anymore.

This language is too much “us versus the rest of the world”, it’s too disruptive and it still doesn’t understand the consumer. Just because I visited your site for a second doesn’t mean you’re entitled to target me until the end of times.

Targeting works under a false paradigm. We shouldn’t be targeting people. Reverse it. Consider your product/service as the target of your customer. And your marketing is there to help them aim and succeed better in hitting that target. Be a pleasant, exciting and entertaining presence in places where prospects spend their time and help them get their job done.

It’s time to call a truce.

Uwe Hook is the CEO and Co-Founder of BatesHook, Inc. (www.bateshook.com) and a veteran of the advertising and marketing industry with the goal of building connections between people and brands. Uwe can be reached at uwe@bateshook.com.

Read all Uwe's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Subversions - MediaBizBloggers.

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