Brand bullying and other things that need to change

brand bullying

In the future, chatbots will be at the center of customer service and every shoe department will have a ladder

In the latest episode of The Marketing Companion podcast, Tom Webster and I reveal our wishlist of what we would like to see “more of” and “less of” on the web.

Among the topics we explore:

Brand skepticism and brand bullying — It seems like any time a company authentically tries to be “human” on the web it attracts an attack. If we want brands to show up in a more human way, shouldn’t we reward them?

Evangelism — This word is a red flag for me. When anybody describes themselves as an evangelist for … (fill in the latest social technology) … I immediately wonder about the credibility of the person. “Evangelism” suggests you have a specific agenda and your goal is to “convert” instead of “lead.”  The web need more business leaders and fewer evangelists.

Long-term thinking — Why Uber needs to be more like Nike. A brand develops from a collection of small interactions over time. Do brands still have the patience to be great?

Whining — Let’s stop whining and start taking care of each other. Want to make the world a better place? Think about how you’re showing up in your little corner of the world.

… and there’s much more.

Also, I have been experiencing chatbot envy. Apparently this is the way to go now, according to Facebook. So Tom and I decided we needed to get ahead of this curve by introducing Slurry™, the new Marketing Companion chatbot. It’s not quite ready for primetime, but it is rather entertaining!

Ready for some fun? Here we go:

If you can’t access the edition above, click on this link to listen to Episode 76

Resources mentioned in this podcast:

Please support our extraordinary sponsors. Our content is free because of their generosity.

Many thanks to our friend Scott Monty for the awesome show intro. Be sure to check out his amazing newsletter The Full Monty, the best weekly curation of digital news.

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Illustration courtesy Flickr CC and Juus Uribe

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