The Art of Ethical Marketing: Lessons from the Village Market

Imagine arriving on a crisp morning at a bustling village market. The smell of fresh vegetables, the sizzle of butter on hot griddles, and the murmur of friendly conversations fill the air and you notice a few familiar faces.

As facilitators, coaches, Collective Imagination, and Thinking Environment practitioners, I think the village market is exactly the setting we could aim to create in our approach to ethical marketing. This lively scene is very different from the sterile aisles of a supermarket on an industrial estate.

But in our field, we have a special problem. Our work - which involves the art of deep thinking, relationship building, and collective imagination - is fundamentally experiential.

If it's something we do for a living, how do we "promote" services that can only be truly understood when physically experienced in the present?

The marketing maze then begins

As practitioners, we’ll go through great lengths to clarify that the impact of the session is due to the generative process of attention, presence and partnership.

Although we do agree on broad directions at the start, the people we work with are the ones who will know what will happen to them as a result. They might discover that only throughout the experience or even weeks after!

“I don’t need to learn anything about thinking or doing some imagining stuff with my team, thank you very much, I do that every minute of the day!”

Does it sound familiar?

This is an observation my colleagues and I are getting regularly. Yet findings show that the art of conversation, deep thinking and collective imagining is foundational. It's the clay that shapes relationships, that nurtures curiosity. It informs and enriches our perspectives. And it's in these communing instants that we find the cracks where the light gets in.

So how do we communicate what we offer, when the outcomes are specific to each person and team, the approach is only felt when experienced, and the results are unique to the recipient?

What does it take to make people feel comfortable and allow them time to consider whether to spend money on a discussion or a space for reflection that would likely result in some profound, one-of-a-kind change?

"It's incredible, try it"

We all know that trust, earlier references, beliefs, emotions, sparkles in someone's eyes, confidential whispers like "It's incredible, try it!", time convenience, warm surroundings, connections, and one talk at a time, are the main reasons why people purchase something.

In spite of this, we are surrounded with dubious methods, extractive marketing tactics, and "roadmaps" that don't work. ?I can't see any more 6 figures gain promises, guilt-inducing presentations, and extractive sales funnels.

“I do not want to “make a marketing deal”, I just want to stroll around the market… a village market.”

During a recent mastermind session with peers, I remembered how I love processes that involve and respect me as a human. I compared this feeling to a village market where vendors don't hard-sell their stuff. Instead, they offer samples, share stories of how their produce was grown. They have sincere conversations with new or old customers. What excited me is this context. We share light and complex information, local stories that matter, light and brave thoughts all at once, and I feel connected. We create and weave relationships that nurture and make us want to grow in life (and come back for more pancakes).

On the village market, I want to hear the sizzle of the butter where the Breton pancakes get their golden hue. I want to smell the fragrance of the local fruits and vegetables and their vibrancy spread in the stalls, as they’re still covered by the local soil. I feel the eggs are warm and the cheese is singing and running! And I prefer only two vans selling similar type of produce not miles of aisles with the same stuff packaged differently.

The Wants

The same happens in my Thinking Spaces. I want warm heartbeats, no linear reductionist pathways.

I wish for dignified discussions about challenges. I want people to genuinely hear each other’s thoughts and assumptions and not interrupt each other constantly.

I want to see people fall in love with an idea and be energised, ready to start, sweat and succeed.

I long for people to express doubt, fear and rage without feeling worried it might damage them if they do. The real magic happens in conversations steeped in experience and relationships of wonder, trust and curiosity.

I am in awe about these goal-free moments where I can be surprised and amused, but I also love these gatherings where we all learn with a voracious curious attitude, hunger, and thirst.

It's not that client’s business results don’t interest me. Before that, I'm giving attention to the personal challenges and feelings people will hold in a room. I am curious about the canvas of interactions they are weaving.

I don’t want to assume anything about my clients out of a single survey. I am curious about what helps them be more present with their peers, where they’d love to be or think next and how they are expressing this. Because I know this is the thread and the fabric of their future results.

And this happens when they are in the room.

Can the most successful strategies come from unexpected places?

Like the colourful kitchen tools demonstrator on the village market who captures my attention with their skilful pitches, I feel we can meet our clients at our stall, and demonstrate that the art of conversation and generative attention we practice is about much more than just bottom lines. We can create 'tasting sessions' of deep thinking, offer 'sample jars' of meaningful conversation, and let potential clients experience the transformative power of our methods firsthand.

To hold the joy of being together and accomplishing what we feel is good work for now, we need to meet, we need to uncover and remember what's truly important. We each need to have the confidence that we can contribute at our own pace alongside others.

For time-starved individuals, the concept of "slowing down to speed up" will be their most powerful tool. Dedicated time for thinking, storytelling and collective learning will inform what they’ll later write in their strategy, how they pivot, or what they will ask their board to pay attention to.

In the end, “ethical” marketing for Facilitators, Thinking Partners, Coaches and Collective Imagination practitioners is less about hard selling and more about inviting people to experience a new way of approaching challenges and relationships. It's about creating a 'village market' of ideas, where genuine, deep connections are formed, discoveries flow and the value of our work can be felt, not just described.

I have no attachment to the high-pressure sales tactics and sterile marketing funnels, stale videos or meaningless 2-dimensional profiles. Instead, I long for warm, inviting spaces where potential clients can 'taste' the transformative power of deep thinking and meaningful conversation.

I wonder who is keen to join village markets of ideas, where the true value of our work can be experienced, shared, and cherished?

And if you are, what does your village market look, smell, feel, sound and taste like?

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I am Servane Mouazan, a Thinking Partner for Impact leaders and their team who want to lead at the speed of trust and turn insights into action. Subscribe to my free Conscious Innovation updates: https://eepurl.com/hp0h55