Making Marketing Not Evil

On our trip to NYC last month one of the most striking aspects of the professional marketing scene was reaction to MySpace.  The vast community has done for blogging what eBay did for auctions : kill the remaining geeky stereotype and make it credible to the mainstream.  However, this brings its own anxieties as marketeers try and work out the new rules.  Interestingly, Umair writes that massive mainstream community spaces create anxieties for geeks too.  He highlights that The Valley (collective name for geeks - like pride for lions) is scared of MySpace due to a lack of understanding about "consumer dynamics".  The geeks (including the VCs) who step up to the challenge of, "making marketing not evil", Umair suggests will win the day.  So it seems that while marketeers sweat about a lack of technical know-how, geeks just continue to avoid eye contact.  Of course, Umair's idea relies on the marketing industry actually being the home for an understanding about modern consumer dynamics - but it's not a bad focus for marketeers who feel caught in the headlights of the MySpace juggernaut.  In the meantime consumers and users just carry on rewriting the rules.  All Open Sauce themes.