Apparently, I’m an Evil Liar…

As if being called a “Web Hippie” last week wasn’t enought…

At the bloggerslosher Menlo Park get together an interesting conversation erupted as a non-marketer voiced his opinion.

We asked for his opinion as the social media, PR and community marketing folks wanted to know and understand the perceptions of our industry, here’s what he said:

Marketers are Liars.
Being a techie guy, he felt that marketers trick, lie, customers. They bait and switch: when offering X, they really deliver Y. They were no good, and they probaly don’t wash their hands after using the restroom (ok I’m getting dramatic). He certainly had a negative impression of Marketers and PR folks, that it was a lot of spin, bs, and a think layer of gloss added to make products attractive to customers.

UnMarketing and Anti-Marketing Marketing
Many folks (like myself) and those present at the party are trying to change that, trying to fix it, and morph the industry. We clearly know that customers are taking charge with social media tools (blogs, forums, podcasts). We’re trying to be customer advocates, customers resources and promote transparency and openness. We want to build trust between employees and a customer and foster a dialogue that will eventually build a relationship. We want companies to admit when they are wrong and includes customers to help fix it. We don’t want to hide, we want to embrace.

Seth Godin Says Consumers want Stories
I hope that this respected individuals opinion will be swayed over the discussion we had. We could also explore Seth Godin’s book that “All Marketers are Liars” which suggests it’s consumers that are wanting Marketers to tell them a ’story’ a brand, in order to make them feel good.

Talk back –what’s your impression of Marketers and what should they do about it?

(Thanks Jackie for organizing the event –it was a success, juicy conversations included, my pictures here, and all pics tagged svbloggerslosher06)

Edit: I do enjoy Damon’s thoughts, and Mario’s as well, in fact they were there when we had this discussion.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 8th, 2006 at 7:36 am and is filed under Community Marketing, Ruminations, Social Media, Voice of the Customer, Web Advertising, Web Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.