The transparency and openness of the Internet and the growing voice of the customer in social media are disruptive to traditional marketing. Apparently, many marketers are struggling with telling the truth (and only the truth), building trust, and becoming transparent.
Last night I attended an AMA function where Lynn Upshaw talked about his new book, Truth: The New Rules of Marketing in a Skeptical World. Lynn’s main point is that marketing needs to tell the truth because if they don’t bloggers and other forms of social media will fry them.
He told a story about the CEO of Herman Miller, the office furniture company, who became distressed when reviewing his company’s marketing messaging. Each faction was over-hyping the virtues. Marketing overstated features, support overstated reliability, and sales overstated competitive differentiation and price/value.
His instruction to them was “The truth is good enough.”
The truth is good enough! This should be the mantra of marketing people as they deal with a Web 2.0 world. The truth is not just good enough. It is essential to winning customer mindshare.
