Forget the customer

‘Today’s sophisticated consumers are sceptical about marketers’ promises to love, honour and obey them’ proclaims a publisher’s press release.

The thesis of the new book being promoted (Stephen Brown’s Free Gift Inside!!) is that marketers should ‘stop chasing after customers – to stop pestering people – and to torment, tantalise and titillate them instead.’

I’m reminded of my reaction on reading Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing. That public relations practitioners have already learnt these lessons – that less is more, that oblique is often better than direct, and that recommendation is always more valuable than exhortation.