Timothy Chen

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”.

Tags: all marketers are liars, Seth Godin

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“The difference between a company that makes stuff and a company that markets is that the latter is conscious of the fact that the market demands a show. So they put one on, on purpose, the best they can.” (source)

我的感想似乎和 marketing沒有關係：

原來不是政治人物愛在電視上作秀，而是觀眾(市場)喜歡or想要看秀。媒體只是搭起供給和需求的橋樑罷了。

下回邊看電視邊罵之前，先想想自己怎麼會停在電視前邊看邊罵。

Tags: Seth Godin, 佳句

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The following quotes come from Seth Godin’s post, What Do You Know.

 

• If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you’re viewing marketing as an expense. Good marketers realize that it is an investment.

行銷是一種投資

• Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy.

行銷在每位員工工作的細節中

• Business to business marketing is just marketing to consumers who happen to have a corporation to pay for what they buy.

行銷對象永遠是人，不是組織

• Organizations that manage to deal directly with their end users have an asset for the future.

Audience Marketing 就是未來

 

Tags: Audience Marketing, Seth Godin

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近日Seth Godin寫了一篇blog post，標題是”Who Answers the Phone?”，內容提到一個我個人很喜愛的的字眼 “Permission Marketing” (授權行銷)；在這個有太多資訊可以分散使用者注意力的時代，即便是掌握著潛在客戶30秒、1分鐘的「主動授權注意力」(Permitted Attention) 也是彌足珍貴。

那麼，在企業中是誰最能掌控這寶貴30秒的互動呢？品牌主管？行銷人員？NO，答案是 - 第一線客服人員(原文是inbound call)。但您公司的電話客服人員有受過任何特別的訓練嗎？抑或只是順著客服經理發下去的「腳本」(script)照念呢？

同樣的「主動授權注意力」，也會發生在官方的討論區或留言版。當使用者留下問題，就等於是將注意力交給了您(難能可貴)，他們專注看完您給的一字一句回覆，並記在腦中。因為這是他們主動提出的資訊需求，所以您所回應的資訊具有「放大」效果。

那麼，貴公司是由誰來負責這麼關鍵性的工作呢？有沒有設立專門經營/回應網路社群的團隊呢？負責這個工作的人，是滿腦子想著「我要如何趕快結案，把這個問白痴問題的user甩掉?」

還是

「我要如何把握住顧客難得的專注力」？然後…

Seth Godin (賽斯.高汀) - 知名市場派行銷專家，著有Purple Cow(紫牛)

Tags: Permission Marketing, Seth Godin, 回應, 紫牛, 討論區, 顧客

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