One of the things that I find really fascinating is the whole concept of marketing. The fact that most perceptions of quality are no more than illusions, put in your head by skilled teams of people who's job it is to change the way you perceive something.
Lindsay's post about the new world of marketing is encouraging, but it's hard to not believe that it's all just more lies. Check out Seth Godin's new book for proof...
I spent a bunch of today working with our marketing team on where to position our new product, and I have to admit, it was really quite fun. I felt like one of the kids in Enid Blyton's Secret Seven - meeting in secret to determine which messages we would send (that's market speak for lies we will tell) to establish "Thought Leadership" (which is marketspeak for people who other people follow)
Once upon a time, I would've believed that you could trust people to get the right impression of your product based solely on it's innate quality, and that thought leadership could only be attained by recruiting people who were actually thought leaders in any given field How naive...
That's not to say that I don't think our new product is revolutionary or substantial - I honestly do. (I wouldn't be posting this if it wasn't, I'd still be in the shower trying to scrub myself clean.) It's just that, after my experience to date, I've come to realise that building an amazing product is only half the battle - getting the acceptance it deserves is just as important, and equally difficult...
Oh - and having finished Al Ries and Jack Trout's 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, I on-leant Cam's copy to Lindsay (don't worry, she'll give it back!) - you can read Eric Sink's commentary on the 22 laws here.
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