All Relationships are Local and Human...

I came across Lester Wunderman's Chronicles by way of Servant of Chaos. From a word of mouth standpoint, his seemingly contrarian praise of local human relationships holds water:

"But sadly, I recognized the limitations of media, you can’t share a hot espresso, “abraccios,” or the touch of real human contact over the Web or even through the mail.

And so I conclude, with some regret, that we are right when we express our company’s mantra that all relationships are local.  If they are not yet so, technology, time, our vision and human warmth will make them so."

He continues in a related Peter Kim post:

"Communications used to be dominated by the seller.  Today, the hero is the consumer.  Advertising used to speak – now they must listen." Marketers need to move from product trial to creating and retaining loyal customers.

"Word of mouth is still the most powerful force around." Closing thought:  “In marketing, as in life, there’s no substitute for imagination or leadership.”

WOW...

A lot of "paint by numbers" industry leaders and some of even the top tier marketers still have a warped perspective on what their job really is and should be focused on, preferring to narrowly influence what they do vs. what they should deliver.

In our traditional marketing mindset, we believe getting positioning, creative, tactics and measures right and selling all those through our company are the key deliverables.

In our information age online-driven mania, user experience, search engine ranks and rich media add-ons predominate discussions. We seem to believe that our creative, technical and analytical genius is what counts most.

What we often lose focus and perspective on is that  marketing and selling is an inately human function - tied to emotional and social instincts that reside and are hardwired in us for thousands of years. People don't buy because you have added a red keyline to your print ad, or squeezed 25 extra GRPs out of the media orange, sold in a $2.99 hot flyer ad or secured front page leaderboard on Chatelaine  - they buy because they like, trust, want and need you.

As put forward by Daniel Pink's book "A Whole New Mind",  the Conceptual Age we now live in requires more then anything else the high human touch, high-concept skills of ingenuity, personal rapport and gut instinct, things we've tended to subordinate at the marketing temple of ROI, efficiency and information analysis for decades. 

Bravo, for a Lester's much needed and experienced voice here - I'm not entirely sure if it echoes through the halls of Wunderman so efficiently.

I wish I was there to have had the espresso and conversation with him - I'm sure I would have been enriched by the conversation.