Rob Hardy wrote a really great manifesto entitled, “Non-Coercive Marketing: A Primer.” Here are the principles, which he breaks down in full at his post:

    Optimize for aligned, empowered customers

    Surrender control, and embrace emergence

    Cede authority

    Treat people as ends, not means

    Enough is enough

    Play long games

    Tell the truth, even when it’s scary

    Create invitations, not ultimatums

    Trust fully and unconditionally

All of this resonates with me, thematically. In particular, the point on surrendering control resonates with me right now. The need for control—attribution, repeatability, ROI, etc.—is a recurring theme in Contentions (like here, here, and here!). Rob Hardy believes that marketing can be separated from control and this desire for certainty—and of course it can be—though it’ll take a lot of work, and some time to work through.

This makes me feel like when I first read The Cluetrain Manifesto.