Marketing Imperialism
Blogs are the 21rst Century equivalent of one of the greatest freedoms the U.S. Consititution conveyed, which is Freedom of Speech. Sure, there is a deafening wave of voices in blogs, but in that diversity is the strength of the medium. Content is king, not delivery method.
Our love of freedom of expression in all nations, and the accentuated tone of patriotism in the U.S. right now specifically, makes Lew McCreary's column in CMO Magazine look so imperialist I wonder where Mr. McCreary is spending his time.Here's Lew's column for CMO Magazine: http://www.cmomagazine.com/read/080105/coming_clean.html
Most irritating of all about the condescending tone of the article. It shows the worst arrogance anyone can have; thinking the title, position or degrees make one person better than another. Having grown up lower middle class, that kind of arrogance personally grates on me - everyone deserves a voice - and some of the best ideas in companies come from the cleaning crew and not the C-level execs.
One wonders why Marketing worldwide is losing credibility. Putting a "members only" sign on blogs is exactly the type of thinking that robs Marketing of the creativity of working class heroes - not the pedigreed and pampered - but the marketing folks that come to work with a lunch pail and their shirt sleeves rolled up ready to get to work. Given a choice between a high pedigree or a strong work ethic from a common degree, give me the latter any day.
Apparently Mr. McCreary forgot about what makes Marketing work in the first place: a strong work ethic and a no-nonense view of results where effort and not pedigree alone gets the job done. Add in freedom of speech and you have an unbeatable combination.
A final note: one of the "rabbit holes" that Lew chides single-handedly changed Dell's policy on blogs. Check this out http://www.buzzmachine.com/?tag=dell
Bottom line: CMOs everywhere would do well to deliver honesty and transparency in their own blogs, and not consider the many voices out there "the great unwashed".
Consider this point as well: Going back to the 18th century when the American colonies first started using the printing press there was a illegitimate child born who had a reputation for a good joke and a witty mind. He helped pen the Declaration of Independence, and by any measure he was the very picture of the "great unwashed". His name: Benjamin Franklin.
Posted by LOUISCOLUMBUS on August 30, 2005 at 01:38 AM in Customer Dialogue | Permalink
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