When people hear of the word marketing, they often look down upon it. (To be honest, I don’t really blame them). Marketing is believed to be “the art of manipulating customers”. Details at the back of the product often don’t do what they are supposed to and everybody seems to be tricked by marketing yet again.

Truths of the past are often myths of today. In this case, you could probably get away with cheating and misrepresenting your customers in the past.  In the past, a large corporation was king but today, the customer is king, the beholder of power.

Anyone with a single status update, a few photos and a video can ruin everything that you painstakingly built. Customers are getting smarter, sharper and will not tolerate being cheated. So what do marketers do? I believe that for a brand to succeed, marketing needs to be truthful.  Saying the truth and standing by it will be the future of marketing. The brands that will truly stand by these values of honesty and truthfulness will emerge as true brand leaders.

I believe that lying and cheating only got brands this far.  The power of human networks both online and offline cannot be underestimated. Therefore the best thing to do would be to leverage on this power by spreading a “good word” about your brand and its products. This isn’t going to happen without a brand really being honest and being proud of it. If you ask me what the future of successful marketing will be? I’d say – Marketing is will simply be the truth made amusing, exciting and fascinating.