I am not a consumer! I am a free man!

Interesting piece by Dave Evans on the need to integrate one's thinking and strategy when considering the roles that interactive media can and should play in most marketing campaigns. While many of the points are valid and important, I think it, in typical marketer fashion, glosses over an essential insight we as marketers must always have when thinking about going to market with a new campaign and that is this: the people to whom we speak are not consumers first and foremost, they are people. In fact, for the vast majority of us we are consumers far less frequently than we are fathers, brothers, classmates, colleagues, sisters, wives, and on and one. You get the idea. So, when thinking about reaching people where they live and doing so in a manner that speaks to them consistently over time, it's essential to remember this fact. Appealing to one's need to consume only works when someone is in their "consumer" persona. The rest of the time it's noise. Unless... Your message and offer speaks to them as if they were a real person with real thoughts, feelings, and aspirations. Apply this thinking to some of the most memorable and highly regarded marketing campaigns of recent years and I think you'll get my point. Consumers want the latest and greatest at a price while people want love, humor, and inspiration. Just do it. Think different. (HT to the 1967 UK TV Show "The Prisoner" for the title of this post.)