Unrestricted Marketing Warfare - Media Convergence at Work

Unrestricted marketing warfare links personal needs—including illness, family troubles, financial states, and other once wholly private information—into a message map or logic trail that would undermine the buying cycle of even the strongest, most cohesive American family.

Not to fault any firm, but the amount of data available on the Internet when linked with an aggressive marketing program can lead to massive leaps in the perception and buying power of the consumer and B2B customer base. The question is which media, which tactics, and when?

Even the chapter titles in the document mentioned above have marketing applications.

• “Chapter One: The Weapons Revolution Which Invariably Comes First” can be easily modified by substituting “marketing tools” in place of “weapons.”
• “Chapter Five: The New Methodology of War Games”—substitute “marketing plans” for “war games,” and you have a nice alternative to war: a marketing war.
• “Chapter Seven: Ten Thousand Methods Combined as One: Combinations that Transcend Boundaries”—no change needed here; that is marketing.

A key aspect of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules. Nothing is forbidden. We in marketing can easily accept that in order to make a sale. Many think marketing has little or no rules.

Perhaps criminal prosecution will limit how many new rules we have or need. But the internal destruction of the consumption nation would weaken and soften this backlash or concern. When you look at the phone tapping scandal in the UK (Is there one hiding in the media weeds of the United States?), you can understand that there may not have been a book of rules concerning how to sell newspapers. In the end, getting the story, increasing circulation and selling ad space justified the means. The rule is that there are no rules.

We marketers can’t go that far. But in today’s competitive world, what stops are in place? Better still, who will regulate this new marketing weapon? Will we need to establish a Geneva Convention for marketing?