The Military Marketer
Greg Benedict - June 27, 2006Why is it that marketing over the last 100 years has sounded like a drill seargent?
Campaigns. Market Penetration. Target Audiences. What we consider traditional marketing techniques sound as brash as they really are. It’s more like target practice if you ask me. Just fire as fast as you can and hope we hit something. Nevermind the negative side effects or wasted resources, just do it!
Marketing didn’t used to be this way. Before the industrial revolution, it was about people and the conversations they had. True 1:1 situations with people talking to each other about something interesting.
During the revolution, innovations made production and transportation more efficient and cost effective. It brought products to the masses they never could afford, but now could. Companies looked at this success and tried to copy it. Afterall, it’s easier to copy than it is to innovate.
After the turn of the 20th century those effeciencies were applied to making products for war. Following along as they always do, those miliatry terms slipped in.
It’s also when the goodness of markets became an evil verb - marketing.
