Forget truth in advertising, what about integrity in marketing?

Thanks to my recent travel schedule, I found myself in a several airport bookstores where a single title seemed to follow me around. From Houston to Nashville to Ft. Lauderdale, Marketing to the Entitled Consumer was staring me in the face. At first, I thought it was about marketing to the affluent, which it is not. It's about marketing to a sophisticated audience who has come to expect superior treatment on many levels. They expect you to give them something for the valuable data they share with you, they welcome you to use that data appropriately to offer new things they don't yet know they want, and most importantly they demand you respect their data and do not put it at risk.

I was so impressed by these groundbreaking companies that were profiled. Some were big, some were small. They spanned across all industries. They provided very different products or services. But what they all shared was the willingness to transform to put their client ahead of themselves. Yeah, yeah, every company says they do, but these ones actually do.

After I finished the book, which I raved about to everyone who would listen and then promptly sent it to my boss, I found myself continually asking myself why companies don't embrace this approach more often and trust their marketing departments when we recommend logical and pragmatic ideas (as opposed to blaming us for sales not hitting their goals).

But in any given day's worth of meetings and emails, I am reminded exactly why: because despite good intentions, we're doing it all wrong. We're still trapped in the mindset of aligning marketing's goals with the company's revenue numbers instead of thinking about it the other way around. What if marketing were to advise executive leadership instead: the following five things are what we need to do in order to keep growing at a rate of 6.5% a year.

If you review my handy-dandy profile, you'll see I don't have a fancy MBA nor do I profess to be an expert of anything. What I know is human experience. I am a consumer before I am a "marketer" (one of the most dreaded terms in the English language, btw). I know when I'm being sold a bill of goods. I know when I'm being lied to. And I know when the people talking don't even believe the script they've been given.

What happened to the old adage "the customer is always right" anyway? It seems companies stopped listening because it costs too much. They forget that customer retention costs far less than acquiring a new customer to make up for that loss because it doesn't look sexy in their quarterly results.

When you need to define your success by new revenue from new customers, one of your wise executives might say, "Hey, send our newsletter/brochure/400 page powerpoint deck out to every single person in our CRM, all 1,000,000 of them. We have to get someone to bite. What's the harm? It's brand awareness!" I'm paraphrasing, but you know these people. Spray and pray, blast 'em all, throw a bunch of, uh, stuff on the wall and see what sticks. Lots of cliches to describe the marketing approach of many senior level executives of all industries.

My response to this query varies, but it is usually one of the following: a) Well, if we had 1,000,000 valid email addresses in CRM, that would actually be possible, but... b) We actually already send an average individual in CRM about 20 emails per month, so adding another doesn't seem smart, especially because... c) They don't open the ones we do send them. Open rates dip as your email frequency increases. d) People are pretty smart and know you don't know them when you send generic emails these days. They know you have a ton of data about them, but you're not using it. e) There is such thing as negative brand awareness. When someone sees your logo next to information they find to be classified as "junk mail" or the dreaded spam, you've done your brand more harm than good.

Gee, I have a lot of responses to this (because it is asked so often), but they all revolve around the same idea. We're not using the information available to us or the data we (should) have to determine what our contacts actually want.

Analytics are so readily available, so why aren't we using them? Oh right, because we decided not to pay for them. We know they're out there, but budgets are tight. So we'll guess what our customers want, or we'll tell them what they want, and surely that'll work.

Please let me share an amalgamation of several conversations I have had over the years (you may even see a little glimmer of yourself in this person):

Very Important Person: Everybody emails. I want to do a mailing to my top 1,000 targets. Me: Ok, let's call them people. Where did you find these 1,000 people? VIP: It was in one of those Book of Lists things. Me: So you don't know them? And you know nothing about them? VIP: They're at the top of their game in their industry. Big companies! They need to know I can help them. Their world changes the day they become our client. Me: Ok. What kind of direct mail campaign are you thinking? VIP: I'll write a letter. Or I should say, I'll have you write a letter from me, and I'll sign it. And include an overview of our services. The tri-fold brochure. Oooh! Maybe our capabilities deck. Me: (stifling laugh) Can I ask you a question? Who gets your mail? VIP: My assistant. Me: So do you get letters and brochures and stuff in the mail? VIP: No, she tosses them. I don't have time for that. Me: So why are these other VIPs any different? No one reads letters from people they don't know, especially ones that are sales pitches. What you're suggesting sending will never make it past their assistant. VIP: But I'll make follow up calls. Me: That their assistant will decline and put you through to voicemail, if you even get that far.

This sad conversation could go on forever, and unfortunately, it's still happening with some of these individuals. With me, with their new marketing guru, with their own assistant ("she's good with Powerpoint, she can do marketing!").

At this point, you're thinking, "wow, you're negative. You keep telling these executives they can't do the things they want to do." And you're right. I am attempting to stop them from making costly mistakes: costly to their reputation and their brand, and costly to their budget and bottom line. But negative, I am not. I am realistic and pragmatic.

And that's why I continually see myself failing as a marketing professional. I know the idea is not going to work, so I say so. I realize the money is going to be wasted on something that will not get new clients banging down the door, and I tell people that. I am the anti-marketing marketing person. I don't believe in it marketing; I believe in people helping other people.

You can make money by helping other people, so it's not that I'm anti-profit. Don't get me wrong; the company needs to keep making money. But my scheme? It starts and ends with keeping current customers and clients happy. And in return, those happy people will tell others about their amazing "hairstylist, shoe shiner, dentist, banker, car salesperson, personal trainer, realtor, accountant, web developer, etc." Pretty soon, new customers will walk through the door willingly, excitedly even, because someone they know and trust likes your product or service. This is unreal! This, to me, is the marketing I want to be a part of.

I suppose it's really called customer experience. Maybe that's my true calling in life, "Guru of Superior Customer Experience." Might look nice on a business card.

What do you think? Is there truly an opportunity for marketing to repair its unsavory reputation within corporate culture? And can we actually be genuine and altruistic in our customer interactions while still driving revenue and a successful business strategy?