"All Marketing Should Be Permission Marketing"

Speaking of advertising (see below), the marketing chief of one of the largest consumer products companies in the world today told the Advertising Agency Association of America’s annual conference that:

    “All marketing should be permission marketing,” he said. “When we think of permission-based marketing, most of us think about opt-in online newsletters. We really need to expand this mentality to all aspects of marketing. … For each element of the marketing mix, we should ask ourselves, ‘Would consumers choose to look at or listen to this,’ and let that be the benchmark”

Thus spoke Proctor & Gamble’s Global Marketing Officer Jim Stengel. Ad Age reports the story.

We believe that the marketing and advertising industries are in the throes of a wrenching change from Intrusive to Permission Marketing and that this change, which started about three to four years ago, will take perhaps 20 years in total.

If you don’t know what Permission Marketing is, Seth Godin brilliantly explains it (and why its happening) in his book by that name. It’s required reading for anyone in advertising, marketing, or editorial. Why editorial, too? Because most of its principles also apply to publishing news content, not just advertising content.