Love and War: Michael Masterson on Business
Came across this quote in one of my newsletters today:
Many marketing experts like to compare business to war.
I don’t like the martial metaphor, because it views the customer as the enemy – as someone to be tricked or bullied into submission. As a short-term strategy, this can sometimes seem to make sense. And the direct-response universe abounds in promotional copy that badgers, beats, or bullshits the customer into making a purchase. Smart marketers and copywriters avoid this sort of approach, because they know that, in the long run, it is destructive and self-defeating.
Business should not be like war. It should be like love. And not a steamy, one-night-stand kind of love, but a mutually beneficial, steadily improving romance that lasts a lifetime.
- Michael Masterson
Yes, exactly. Get this, and a lot of other things will suddenly become a lot easier and clearer in your business life.
From AWAI’s The Golden Thread Newsletter, Issue 315
“It views the customer as the enemy”?
I think this is a complete misinterpretation of the old cliche. I’m pretty sure that whoever out there is calling business “war” is referring to the competition and not the customer.
A decade or so ago, I would have agreed with you. These days, though….well, apparently you haven’t seen some of the marketing training literature I have. A lot of it does act as if the customer (or prospect) is, if not the enemy, then something akin to prey.
I’m addressing this further in today’s post:
Make Love, Not War: Part the Second