"... or just be human." This was the closing comment of a recent post of Seth Godin's, after riffing about an impersonal note he received from a mail merge from a large corporation.

It got me thinking about how screwed up the whole marketing thing can be. Obviously, he meant, just be a GOOD human, because it would be so very human to do the normal marketing thing, and push our agenda, expound our features and benefits.

Really great marketing should remove our agenda. It really should be personal, not just "personalised". We should keep in mind that being a human at its best, is when we show more concern for others than for what we are selling. That they are a human with feeling, fears, loves, hates, concerns, needs. Our product or service is most probably not at the top of the agenda...

I believe that the really great marketing of the future is not just going to get better at putting ourselves at the top of peoples agenda, at interrupting, at reminding. The really great stuff is going to be when we show interest and concern in what others are interested in and concerned about.

Maybe then we get the right to talk, as one human to another.