Think First, Then Market

Some digital marketing feels too close for comfort.

Instead
of a customized, helpful recommendation, it feels more like an alarming, creepy
intrusion. Instead of an enthusiastic engagement between the brand and the
customer, it’s another opportunity for companies to use new technology to
interrupt people more effectively. Instead of orientating the company
around what the customer needs or wants, it’s another online vanity exercise
about what the company does. 

Instead of offering to change the world on behalf
the customer, it’s a patronizing
attempt to control what meaning consumers take from the brand. And instead of
creating a brand that gives meaning to our experiences and communicates
our thoughts and feelings with others, it’s visual pollution on an already
littered landscape.

Think
of it as a litmus test.

If
it’s right for your business and not for your customer, it won’t work. If
customer frustration outweighs economic benefit, it won’t work. If privacy
violations overrule convenience, it won’t work. And if it induces a shiver in
the user, it won’t work.

Think
first, then market.