Permission Marketing

Seth Godin's latest book, LinchpinSeth Godin is a best selling author, marketing expert, and thought leader on the next wave of what he calls "permission marketing." Godin begins his argument by stating that our world is so cluttered and advertising so plentiful, it is hard to get consumers attention. He talks about two different types of marketing- interuption marketers and permission marketers. Quoting he says, "Interruption
Marketers spend all of their time interrupting strangers, in  an almost pitiful attempt to bolster popularity and capture attention. Permission Marketers spend as little time and money talking to strangers as they can. Instead, they move as quickly as they can to turn strangers into prospects who choose to "opt-in" to a series of communications."

This type of marketing is really nothing new. Business has always been about relationships and trust. With the advent of mass media however, marketers for many years got away from the personal, trust, and value that so many mom and pop businesses have depended on for years and for lack of a better term, got a little greedy. In an effort to expand to more and more customers businesses interupted you to get you to pay attention to their products. This in essence has done more damage than good to the advertising industry and resulted in guarded consumers. I like Godin's approach because like I mentioned it really isn't new, it's the old way of doing business- trust and permission. This type of synergy creates win win solutions, something every business and consumer should be looking for.