Chapter 7
The Third Relationship—With Your Constituents
Nurturing Relationships to Build Loyalty
As the amount of inputs goes up, as the number of people and ideas that clamor for attention continue to increase, we do what people always do: we rely on the familiar, the trusted, and the personal. The experience I have with you as a customer or a friend is far more important than a few random bits flying by on the screen. The incredible surplus of digital data means that human actions, generosity, and sacrifice are more important than they ever were before.
—Seth Godin’s blog, “The Blizzard of Noise (and the Good News),” August 27, 2010, at www.sethgodin.com
Many of marketing’s most severe critics give it more credit than it deserves. Marketing is not manipulation; it cannot make people buy things they do not desire. … As the legendary impresario, Sol Hurok, is reputed to have said, “If the people do not want to come, there is nothing you can do to stop them.”
—Michael P. Mokwa, William M. Dawson, and E. Arthur Prieve, Marketing the Arts (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1980, 5)
