騙子和律師，你要當哪一個
Posted in Marketing Thought on Jul 2nd, 2008
There aren’t so many statesmen. People who speak truth to power. Leaders who describe what they see, whether or not it serves their short-term interests. They say what needs to be said, do what needs to be done, as long as it serves the long-term needs of their constituents. No wonder we like them so much.
Lawyers are sworn to be advocates. It’s their duty. They take a side and they argue it. They’re not supposed to tell the truth, they’re supposed to argue a point of view.
Guess who has a better reputation?
Which leads us to marketers. Have you noticed that most of us act like lawyers?
Marketing culture has become a culture of lawyers. Apparently, marketers are now advocates sworn to argue on behalf of a client.
This attitude leads to spam (hey, it’s not against the law and it helps my client) and to dicey product claims and to awful side effects like obesity, shoddy products and massive debt. If your job is to represent a product and ensure its short-term sales, that’s exactly what you’re sworn to do. (source)
這邊的argue on behalf of a “client”指的不是顧客，而是所負責的產品、品牌、或是組織。當你是為了賣產品而拼命說產品好，你就是一個liar；當你站在顧客的立場為他們發聲，當你有勇氣告訴顧客競爭者的產品更適合他們的需求，你就是marketer。
可惜在台灣企業看不到後者，因為都已經被老闆fire掉了。只能回家寫寫書，像這本”All Marketers Are Liars”.
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