Seth Godin: 
Many of us want fun and respect and love and success and kindness and hope. What brilliant marketers do is add the =.

A hundred years ago, food wasn’t much of an industry. Today,
packaged, profitable, processed food has transformed every element of
our culture.

The Super Bowl is a food holiday. Visit (if you must) the local
supermarket on a Sunday morning before the big game. That’s the primary
function of the event… to eat processed foods and beverages while
hanging out with a group of people. Bonding via shared junk.

Same with a typical birthday party. Kids get validation from their
friends (you came) and from their parents (yay, we get to eat junk.)

It’s not an accident that fried corn, sugared beverages, semi-trans
fats and white flour have become essential parts of our culture. You
can’t get elected in Iowa without pigging out at the Fair and you can’t
host a party without stocking up on the chips. Somehow, food marketing
became a story about respect. Few people say, "it’ll be fun… I’ll
make a big bowl of brown rice and serve oatmeal cookies I made from
scratch." Too weird. Too risky. People might not like you if you
challenge the food dynamic.

There’s always been a cultural desire to conform. The difference is
that now there’s money at stake, so marketers push us to conform in
ways that turn a profit.

Marketers, brilliant, profit-oriented marketers, have had a century
to teach us to associate respect and kindness and love with certain
kinds of food.

And that’s why this post isn’t just a screed, it’s a lesson for marketers everywhere.

…Just as the jewelry and floral people have taught us that flowers and diamonds =
love and that a respectable gentleman spends two months salary (!) on
an engagement ring. Not an accident, of course. It’s too risky,
marketers teach us, to send a handmade card or skip the jewelry and buy
a research grant or pay for part of a school.

…Just as the car you drive somehow says something about who you are.

…Just as the college-industrial complex has taught us that the
best colleges are the ones that are the most expensive (making them the
hardest to get into, furthering the cycle),

…you have the opportunity to start down this road with what you make.

So I’m hoping that what you make is worthy. Marketing is a powerful
tool especially when it associates a product with a desire and instinct
we already have.

Marketing, when it works, transcends any discussion of the benefits of the product or the service.

Marketing, instead, is about the equal sign.

Many of us want fun and respect and love and success and kindness and hope. What brilliant marketers do is add the =.

Via Seth Godin