• Permission Marketing ?.0

    Posted on January 17th, 2008 by and currently 8 commenting.

    Papa Seth coined the term ‘Permission Marketing‘ way back in 1999 referring to the digital world. And there have been different variations on it over the years. But Robbin was talking about permission marketing yesterday in a whole new way…

    It’s about this new world of honesty and transparency. It’s about creating a culture ” an inward and outward identity ” that gives that entity permission to be themselves (and not try to be something that they think the world wants them to be). To open the kimono and show the bumps and bruises. The imperfections. The screw-ups. You know, the human side of who they are and what they stand for. When a company realizes that they have this ‘permission’ is when they begin to open up to honest conversations with their customers. It gives them permission to be real. To not have to hide behind corporate babble and press conferences.It also gives your customers permission (yeah, like they need it) to carry those conversations from place to place and person to person.

    Maybe it’s something to chew on…

  • http://www.ideadrunk.com Christian

    Hi Spike,

    I agree with the idea of permission marketing… I think that it’s a good thing for brands to strive for that level of trust in their customers. The only thing is, that I am wondering what percentage of the population is willing to give that permission?

    It seems from all of the news reports on personal privacy vs. social networks that the masses aren’t ready to give permission. Only the fringes are, which is cool if that’s who your brand targets. But what about the mainstream?

  • http://themarketingspot.blogspot.com Jay Ehret

    It sure would be easier to just be yourself all the time and let all the bumps and bruises show. But I’m with Christian, is that really what people want?

    If you’re showing your scars and your competition is not, who are people going to choose? In high school, did you want to go out with the hot chick in the tight skirt, or the girl who didn’t care what make up she wore?

    I’m not saying be dishonest, I’m just saying wear some nice clothes.

  • http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress Scott White

    I find it interesting that the man most people look up to in WOMM (Seth Godin) is talking from both sides of his mouth. He says get permission, be honest and transparent let he doesn’t let readers of his blog comment. Seems strange to me.

    What’s he afraid of? Why not let readers of your blog respond openly and honestly?

    Personally I think he’s full of crap but I’m just a branding guy. But I give him big time kudos for selling all those books because ultimately that’s his strategy.

    Heavens forbid someone knock Seth Godin huh?

  • http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress Scott White

    Here’s my thoughts on Seth Godin:

    http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/?p=455

    Do you think he’s being “transparent” by not allowing readers the ability to post?

  • http://thebrandbuilder.blogspot.com olivier blanchard

    Permission Marketing will work if certain conditions are present:

    1. The person being ‘tapped on the shoulder’ doesn’t feel that they are about to be exploited by a canned or one-sided advertising message. A more symbiotic relationship between advertisers and the public needs to exist. The language needs to change from words like “market,” “demographic” and “segment” to “community,” “users” and “people.”

    2. There has to be value to the person in the marketing/advertising message. (We’ve talked about how software can, by learning people’s lifestyle and purchasing habits, make timely suggestions about products based on a variety of factors like proximity to a store that carries the product, low levels of that product in the home, an event coming up that may require this product, etc.) If I have a cold and an advertiser pings my cell phone about a great cold medicine sold in a store that’s a block away, there is value to me in that. If on the other hand the ad is about a new line of scented candles, it has no value to me and the ping alone has wasted ten seconds of my day. The second scenario will make it unlikely that I will even pay attention to the next ping.

    3. People need to control the medium, not the advertisers. If I am busy doing something, I want to be able to turn off ALL ads on my mobile device, email, browser, etc. When I want to open myself to advertising, then I can open the gate again.

    You won’t really have a true permission marketing environment until the technology is there to a) target people with ads that are of value to them, and b) allow people to control their level of exposure to these ads.

    This is barely ten years down the road and it is going to radically change the world of media buying.

  • http://lgbusinesssolutions.typepad.com/solutions_to_grow_your_bu/ Lewis Green

    Spike,

    Love it! Nothing produces trust and credibility more than transparency and authenticity. Enough said.

  • http://www.delishio.com Social Bookmarks

    Thanks for the article on Social Bookmarking! Very informative… and timely! Keep them coming.

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