The number of spammers has grown so much, their tricks have become so sophisticated and their presence is so overwhelming that it becomes hard for marketing to distinguish itself from spam. After all, both marketers and spammers are promoting something. Since marketers are known to advertise all kind of useless things, it is not so easy to legitimize one form of promotion over the other. This issue was rises at SES SJ (2009) as ambiguity between spam and legitimate marketing is felt in the industry. Some could argue that lotto sells dream, but none would label lottery ads as spam. I know, I know… lottery is not scam because you always have a chance of winning when you buy a ticket. But as Adam Smith has put it:

The worst way to lose in lottery is to win for sure.

Why? Because there is one way to win for sure, and that is by buying all the tickets. The only problem, is that the cost of all the thickets will always be more than winning the prize! After all, those than run the lottery are not working for free…

To get back to our subject, I think that there is currently real ambiguity over the definition of marketing but that this situation will lead to new way of doing in this field. Before everything, I would like to say that in a free market, advertising is a legitimate and necessary activity for every firm. When there is competition, firms should be able to promote their products. So marketing will always exist and should always exist. What will change is the customer manipulation techniques. What I mean is that with increased understanding of social psychology, marketers have used sophisticated techniques to add a certain intangible value to their brand or product. That is, they create need through the manipulation of emotions when there is no rational need.

I will not question the legitimacy nor the morality of this model. I just think that this trend will die because consumers are becoming increasingly rational and aware. This new reality is caused by the information revolution as well as social awareness of issues related to consumption culture. In this new market, the role of the marketer will change. They will be more involved with customers that take decisions in a rational way. We already see that there is increasing dialogue between consumers and producers where both have to define value.

Interestingly, this is an opportunity for smart marketers to distinguish themselves from spammers. Spammers cannot have dialogue or rational discussions with their clientele. Spammers job is one of broadcasting and fishing, while marketers job is one of aggregating and relationship building. Those who will be able to build dynamic relationships with their customers will be the ones that will differentiate from spammers. They are the ones that will attract attention and have prospects. Those who will use old static rules of one way ‘brainwashing’ will look like spammers and will pass unnoticed.