Jim Logan yesterday ranted about the sleazy state of marketing today. He says marketers have stooped so low in their efforts to make a buck, and—what’s worse—customers actually expect it. And he asks, are we jaded? Are we doomed forever to be enslaved to the fine print in all the marketing materials we get?

I know I have become more skeptical in my old age. (Not that I’m “old” yet, but old enough to be skeptical.) And I’m certainly tired of all the promises too good to be true. And I’m tired of all the clueless sleazoids trying to get one more sale, at any cost, even that of a customer.

So, Jim, your phone story reminded me of one of my own. I cancelled my wireless phone service to switch to a competitor’s service. When the service rep asked me why I was switching, I told her it was because I didn’t get a strong enough signal in the areas in which I needed to use my phone. Simple, right? So she asked if getting a free phone would make me stay. And I was left standing there, speechless, like, Are we having the same conversation? Like I need another phone that can’t get a signal! Unless you can raise a tower next to my house within the next 30 minutes, it ain’t gonna do nuthin’.

So what can people like us do to set ourselves apart from fine-print marketers? One thing is that we can point out ahead of time when things are not going to be cheap, easy, rosy, and painless. Because customers are surprisingly tolerant of bad news, as long as they know what to expect.

What do you do in your marketing materials to distinguish yourself from the fine-print marketers?

-TimK

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