The search for meaning

I've been finding a few more blogs to read over the past few weeks, and so reading more and writing less. Which wasn't the idea. Anyway, the garden analogy for projects is taking a bit of a back seat for now.

One theme that I've noticed in what I've been reading is the search for meaning. The bloggers are people who consider themselves more or less on the lunatic fringe of marketing, commenting on how (other) bloggers are affecting marketing, advertising and product sales. They see the impact of real people within organisations like Microsoft blogging; and the effect of customers blogging amongst themselves while companies like Kryptonite reap the benefits of failing to listen. (A lot of this has come through Hugh Mcleod at gapingvoid).

Spin, branding and trashy adverts will no longer do the business. Faith and meaning is what counts for customers, (they say). Well, I'd like to believe that. But I can believe that faith and meaning counts for people. Customers and people are not the same.

If the lunatic fringe of marketing succeed in finding an alternative to advertising agencies for the people selling in this world, then it seems that they would like it to be genuine. Bloggers being allowed to say whatever they wish to anyone who'll listen, (provided it's legal) may be part of this alternative.

But how many people can be genuinely passionate about the company they work for or the products it sells? If this line of thought is carried through to some kind of conclusion, maybe there's a whole lot of products and companies selling them that are going to find it hard to survive any kind of honesty.

Frankly I can't see that happening without a fight from the corporate world. So what are their options. Well, as we've seen, some will ban blogs or sack those daring to try a little honesty. But that doesn't deal with the Kryptonite scenario, (can't find the link!). So how about some carefully recruited opinion-formers, instead of buying PR and journalism, you buy bloggers and manipulate public opinion that way. Rating tools already create a kind of credibility mass.

So you think people will see through that? Like they see through the traditional mass-media? It's going to happen, if it ain't happening already - and I don't mean the blatant dissenters either. I'm not saying Bob is 'one of them'. But if he was, who'd know? And if we found out where do we look for honesty, faith and meaning then?