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Massive over-generalization. I’m sorry you only worked with terrible, unethical, incompetent marketing people. There are good ones, just like there are bad pro

Massive over-generalization. I’m sorry you only worked with terrible, unethical, incompetent marketing people. There are good ones, just like there are bad programmers who do all sorts of terrible and dumb things without creating universal truths about programmers.

anigbrowl 2y ago
I don't think so; I said marketing people frequently do bad stuff, which is not the same as saying they're all bad. I stand by 'frequently', because just look at how much terrible adware, clickbait, spam etc there is on the web. It's a Gresham's law-type situation. Of course marketing people do a valuable job in terms of figuring out how to sell things and minimize the gap between producers and customers. But - just like engineers - there are lots of cynical and amoral people who work in that industry who make things worse for everyone else. By contrast, I can't think of any society that is suffering because they don't have enough advertising.
- kristianc 2y ago
  Effective marketing (not just comms, but real positioning and messaging) is why people can find the right products and services, why small businesses can compete, and why entire industries grow. It's unequivocally a good. If anything, societies suffer when good marketing is absent—because that’s when bad actors fill the void with misinformation, hype, and scammy tactics.
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    > If anything, societies suffer when good marketing is absent—because that’s when bad actors fill the void with misinformation, hype, and scammy tactics. Except, marketing too is a market for lemons. Scammy marketing outcompetes good marketing. Simple as that.
    - kristianc 2y ago
      Scammy marketing can sometimes be effective in the short term, but the problem with it it’s inherently self-limiting. Deceptive brands burn their audiences, lose customer trust, and either get regulated out of existence or collapse under their own churn rates. Meanwhile, companies that invest in clear, honest positioning, strong customer relationships, and long-term brand value consistently outperform in the long run. Apple, Patagonia, and Tesla aren’t winning because they spam pop-ups. If marketing were purely a race to the bottom, all successful brands would look like clickbait farms. They don’t.
      - int_19h 2y ago
        Did you seriously just mention Tesla as an example of "honest positioning" and "strong customer relationships"??
  - tremon 2y ago
    Effective marketing (not just comms, but real positioning and messaging) is why people can find the right products and services If that's your metric, I can confirm the GP's statement, at least when it comes to online marketing people. Increasingly, I can not find the right products and services online.

anigbrowl 2y ago

I don't think so; I said marketing people frequently do bad stuff, which is not the same as saying they're all bad. I stand by 'frequently', because just look at how much terrible adware, clickbait, spam etc there is on the web. It's a Gresham's law-type situation. Of course marketing people do a valuable job in terms of figuring out how to sell things and minimize the gap between producers and customers. But - just like engineers - there are lots of cynical and amoral people who work in that industry who make things worse for everyone else. By contrast, I can't think of any society that is suffering because they don't have enough advertising.

kristianc 2y ago
Effective marketing (not just comms, but real positioning and messaging) is why people can find the right products and services, why small businesses can compete, and why entire industries grow. It's unequivocally a good. If anything, societies suffer when good marketing is absent—because that’s when bad actors fill the void with misinformation, hype, and scammy tactics.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  > If anything, societies suffer when good marketing is absent—because that’s when bad actors fill the void with misinformation, hype, and scammy tactics. Except, marketing too is a market for lemons. Scammy marketing outcompetes good marketing. Simple as that.
  - kristianc 2y ago
    Scammy marketing can sometimes be effective in the short term, but the problem with it it’s inherently self-limiting. Deceptive brands burn their audiences, lose customer trust, and either get regulated out of existence or collapse under their own churn rates. Meanwhile, companies that invest in clear, honest positioning, strong customer relationships, and long-term brand value consistently outperform in the long run. Apple, Patagonia, and Tesla aren’t winning because they spam pop-ups. If marketing were purely a race to the bottom, all successful brands would look like clickbait farms. They don’t.
    - int_19h 2y ago
      Did you seriously just mention Tesla as an example of "honest positioning" and "strong customer relationships"??
- tremon 2y ago
  Effective marketing (not just comms, but real positioning and messaging) is why people can find the right products and services If that's your metric, I can confirm the GP's statement, at least when it comes to online marketing people. Increasingly, I can not find the right products and services online.