The Fine Line Between Marketing and Harassment

Dear Impossible Readers,

Have you ever signed up for a service or content that includes the word “professional” somewhere? And then immediately regretted it? After several attempts to unsubscribe, you just ended up blocking this flood of unwanted content. Welcome to the club!

I understand the importance of marketing. At the same time, I can decide for myself what I want, and I really do not need a commercial or an email to tell me. If you grew up watching “normal” TV, you probably remember your life was filled with commercials. However, you might recall that some commercials were really fun to watch, and you did not mind rewatching them a few times. Just maybe not five times during one movie.

On the other hand, you have probably also seen or heard commercials that irritate you so much that it annoys you when you see the brand, and it makes you never want to buy from them in the first place.

Then there are types of marketing that deserve a special place in hell. They use extortion, like dramatically longer delivery times if you do not become a member. But you know what? If I really need it, I would just buy it from another retailer. And yes, that other retailer might actually make more money on that specific product because you paid a little more. But you know what? That retailer earned it by not being annoying.

The real difference between a nuisance and a brand leader lies in shifting from interruption to invitation. Effective marketing, like Toyota’s “Today, Tomorrow, Toyota” or the recent “Let’s Go Places,” works because it creates a consistent promise rather than just making noise. It respects the “Value Exchange,” the unspoken agreement that if a brand takes 30 seconds of your time, it should give you something in return, whether that’s a laugh, a useful insight, or a solution to a real problem. Poor marketing fails because it focuses on message volume instead of how quickly it delivers value. When a brand emphasises short-term metrics, like email open rates, over building long-term trust, it risks losing its reputation for a quick click.

This frustration underscores the delicate balance between effective communication and digital noise. Usually, the main factors are Permission, Signal, and Equity. Great marketing follows Seth Godin’s idea of “Permission Marketing,” where content is so well-targeted that recipients want to receive it instead of seeing it as spam. It is about maintaining a high “Signal-to-Noise” ratio and standing out by solving a real problem you face, rather than just shouting into the void. Companies using “special place in hell” tactics, often focus on immediate “Direct Response” sales at the cost of their “Brand Equity.” While they might make a quick sale today, they risk losing long-term trust and goodwill that could lead to repeat business.

Ultimately, the best marketing does not feel like a sales pitch. It feels like a well-timed recommendation from a friend who genuinely understands what you like.

To special places in hell,
Yours Possibly

Further Reading

Aaker, D.A. (1991) Managing Brand Equity: Capitalizing on the Value of a Brand Name. New York: Free Press.
Binet, L. and Field, P. (2013) The Long and the Short of It: Balancing Short and Long-Term Marketing Strategies. London: IPA.
Cialdini, R.B. (2007) Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Rev. edn. New York: Harper Business.
Godin, S. (1999) Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Godin, S. (2018) This Is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See. New York: Portfolio/Penguin.
Newport, C. (2016) Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. New York: Grand Central Publishing.
Sharp, B. (2010) How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Simon, H.A. (1971) ‘Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World’, in Greenberger, M. (ed.) Computers, Communications, and the Public Interest. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 37–72.
Searls, D. (2012) The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.