Marketonomy - Christopher Kenton

Christopher Kenton writes about "Unforgetting the Laws of Marketing" at Marketonomy.

In a recent posting, he writes about a phone call he had with a friend doing some research on how to reach folks in IT. What he found was:

What's interesting to me is his characterization of those stalwart IT influencing tools: the whitepapers, demos, benchmarking guides and analyst reports. These are touchpoints IT marketers rely on to get their message out, and if my friend is any kind of a canary-in-the-coal-mine, the outlook isn't good. His characterization of "the game" is that he now assiduously avoids any content in which he can't clearly discern the motivations of the messenger. Benchmarking study by a leading analyst: who's funding them? Buyer's guide in a magazine: who's advertising? Discussion guides on a popular forum: who's seeding the boards?

My take on these issues has always been: read them, and think critically about the source. My friend's take: avoid them and look for more reliable information from peers. He summed up his attitude when he told me he treats it as a game: "any time I think anything has been influenced by marketing, I run screaming."

Note that the friend did take his phone call, otherwise he might have not had this conversation.

As a member of IT at a major financial firm, I do ask the same kinds of questions his friend does and generally avoid any attempts at marketers trying to sell something.

I am curious how this will develop. I will continue reading Marketonomy.

Will you?