The new guy at the country club

A week or so ago, I wrote a reply to this post at Decent Marketing. I’m very glad I did as it exposed me to an entirely new discipline of blogging. I have always seen it as a hive-mind of sorts, which leans towards collaboration, but as an ex-higher school debater, I am very excited to see that there is more to blogging than meets the eye.

I apologise upfront on the delay of this rebuttal, however, as the author above neither linked to the post of mine that she was referring to in her subsequent reply, or returned the courtesy of a trackback, it was not until I read posts by these people that I realised that there was a debate at all. That’s not so decent of you Katherine.

(I know that, that’s a lot of links folks, but I suggest you work through them before reading on in order to get some degree of perspective here).

I will now address a few of the key points one-by-one, this may get wordy, and I hate that in a blog, so I apologise in advance.

Rich, are you saying business authors can't handle some criticism? Part of being in an open society means having the courage to say what you think and not worry about the ridicule.

Not at all, I am not in fact speaking for the authors at all, I’m speaking on behalf of the readers that would like to think for themselves, the readers with the intelligence to see the analogies for what they are, analogies.

“…and the words we use (brand warfare, ambush marketing) are simply a giant, flashing neon exclamation point in the sky indicating that we're slowly but surely turning into creeps.”

I wonder if the author of the above has read the book Brand Warfare, given her reference to the title in this fashion I would assume that she hasn’t. This is one of the best marketing books I’ve read. You would be hard pressed to call D’Alessandro’s writing, the work of a creep. He does however understand the tactics at play (the very ones you are referring too) and offers the reader some advice on combating them.

“I'm not saying people don't have the right to name their books whatever they want”.

No, what you are doing is creating, or attempting to create, a taboo. It is these taboos and social laws that have lead to the pandemic that is political correctness. This is what my post was about.

I'm simply saying that I don't want to be a creep. I want to be a Decent Marketer.

Believe it or not, so do I. I try very hard everyday to prove that you can run a successful business and still have good ethics. I just fail to see the relationship between this and the title of a book. It’s just a name, a name designed to catch people's eye, and like it or not that’s what it does. But please, if you want to read business books with cutesy titles like Soul Marketing etc., be my guest, just remember though, the cover does not dictate the content. I noticed you never mentioned Tom Peter’s Re-Imagine! which started with, “This is not a book about war, but it is a book about war” (I’m paraphrasing), and he’s right, it was, and it read very true. Oh, and Sun Tzu didn’t write a business book, he wrote a book on war, interpretation is in the eye of the beholder.

As for the rest of the comments:

Could it be that we marketers use language of war in our marketing strategies to illicit pseudo-emotional feelings from our employees because the underlying mission/cause of the company isn’t compelling enough on its own for its employees to feel inspired by? (johnmoore)

It could be, but I don’t believe so, I just think it’s selling what people are buying. Is that wrong?

Rich calls this "political correctness". I call it debate. And a welcome one. (Johnnie Moore)

I’m confused Johnnie, isn’t debate exactly what I have inspired, the rest of you simply agreed with Katherine, I would go as far as to suggest that there was gushing. As for not understanding the connection between the post and political-correctness, I’m at a loss as to how you missed this.

I think I get it now. We're Combat Engineers For Commerce. If we can't win their hearts and minds, we bring in the bulldozers and heavy ordnance. Johnmoore (fBA)may have the point: If we can't win 'em over, we nuke 'em and start fresh. None's the wiser. (fouro)

I do wish you would read the books that you are commenting on – you will see why statements like this are not warranted.

And Fouro, while we’re here, I’d like to thank you for replying on my blog, I am an avid reader of yours and was (truly) honoured. However, as erudite as your comment was I could not help but find it quite pretentious.

But, given the folderol and malfeasance characterizing the state of business as evidenced in the media and court filings of late, perhaps it's one that deserves a cooling off period.

While I’d love to debate the content, I can honestly say that I’m afraid I simply do not understand it, I humbly apologies for my ignorance.

Jon Strande, in his post, said the following:

My take? If business = war & war = hell then Business = Hell. (if a=b & b=c then a=c)

Absolutely, but business is not hell, and no book title will make it such, only business people can do that.

Much more can be said on this topic, and it surely will, however in the meantime, I’d like to leave you with words by The Offspring:

Ladies and gentlemen Welcome to the disclaimer That's right, the disclaimer This American apple pie institution Known as parental discretion Will cleanse any sense of innuendo or sarcasm From the lyrics that might actually make you think And will also insult your intelligence at the same time So protect your family. This album contains explicit depictions Of things which are real. These real things are commonly known as life. So, if it sounds sarcastic, don't take it seriously. If it sounds dangerous, Do not try this at home or at all. And if it offends you, just don't listen to it!

Or read it…!