Everyone knows that I’m in some ways an archetypal anti-marketing kind of guy. I oppose capitalism’s domination of contemporary US culture; I resist definitions of “success” in terms of dollars or sales/attendance numbers; I actually believe in truth, in the teeth of a world of spin (whose practitioners then try to blame me for being “postmodern” and thus, they infer, intrinsically opposed to truth) (I don’t mean you, Tutor). Preaching the gospel is not just another version of “sales.” Ordained ministry is not just another species of “management” or “leadership.”
On the other hand, there’s a lot that one risks not learning if one pays no attention whatever to anything with “marketing” in the title, or if one declines to observe what happens when people get together in institutional ways.
All of which is the long way round to say that just as I learned a lot from reading Gonzo Marketing (I keep plugging it, Chris, I’m doing my part), I’m enjoying reading Mark Federman’s Rotman Business School presentation on “McLuhan for Managers.” (It’s no mere coincidence that David Weinberger studied with McLuhan, eh?)
This all has so much to do with The Disseminary — and partly, I suspect, with why it can be hard to persuade some people that we’re right.
Posted by AKMA at June 26, 2004 08:30 AM | TrackBackSounds like the beginning of a very interesting cross disciplinary conversational thread. Is the issue how to "market" or evangelize for Disseminary? How to build mindshare and marketshare? To create a successful "social venture," or going concern? How to spark a movement? The language used, the models employed, their authenticity or validity, is, as you know, such a key choice. I will see if I can blog this from another angle, and we can toss it around. Very important topic to me as a lit crit guy in marketing trying to inspire effective philanthropy within and on behalf of communities, covenanted and secular.
Posted by: The Happy Tutor at June 26, 2004 11:27 AMI remember eating breakfast with you and discussing things in Pasadena. After hearing about what you did, I mentioned how both of our jobs involved marketing.
I thought you were going to blow coffee out your nose when I said 'marketing' to you.
Sounds like the persuasion side of marketing is getting a little traction with you. :)
Posted by: Michael at June 27, 2004 11:09 AM