Unfiltered Marketing: 5 Rules to Win Back Trust, Credibility, and Customers in a Digitally Distracted World
Stephen Denny and Paul Leinberger
Career Press (November 2020)

First time you betray my trust, shame on you. The next time, shame on me….

The title of this book may seem inappropriate until after you absorb and digest what Stephen Denny and Paul Leinberger have to say in response to this question: “How can you create or increase demand for what you offer in a competitive marketplace that is louder, more congested, more volatile, more uncertain, more complex, and more ambiguous than ever before?” The challenge is even greater if the trust of those in the target market has been betrayed.  Regaining their trust is only possible by re-earning it, a process that usually requires a great deal of time, money, patience, and determination.

[Time out: Think about the word “raw” and make a list of 3-5 synonyms for it. Here are mine: incomplete, crude, pur, primitive, and unrefined. If Denny and Leinberger were asked how to make “raw” statements when marketing an offering, they would characterize them “as unfiltered, unaltered,  and unvarnished as possible.”]

Some of the most valuable material in the book is provided in the first five chapters when Denny and Leinberger examine five “Rules” that serve as the core principles of unfiltered marketing. (They devote a separate chapter to each.) These rules are guided and informed by the results of a multi-year Culture & Technology Intersection research study they launched in 2016. “We set out to explore the  impact of technology on culture as it relates to the brands we buy.” In this book, they offer what they characterize as “actionable insights, big concepts that if carefully implemented can change the trajectory of your business, your campaign, or even the the evolution of your personal brand.”

They take on several several “big macro trends” such as seeking control in an out-of-the-world world and another that indicates darker digital security and a fear of the world undone by hackers, trends of greatest importance to consumers as well as to those whose filtered marketing approach has thus far failed to create or increase sufficient demand.

“The key lesson of this book is how we can take advantage of macro waves to accomplish our aims, be they in the fields of business, politics, philanthropy, or simply interpersonal influence.”

It would be a fool’s errand to attempt to act upon all of the observations and suggestions that Denny and Leinberger provide. Only you can determine which of the material is most relevant to achieving your strategic objectives. “Use this book as a blueprint or a playbook. Incorporate these ideas into your operating plans, communication platforms, sales strategies, or new product development road maps.”

This book is a brilliant achievement, to be sure, but its ultimate value depends almost entirely on how effectively you formulate and then apply an unfiltered mindset, one that is “raw, unscripted, and real.”  Here’s one point to keep in mind: In today’s business world, there are no marketing or sales issues…there are only BUSINESS issues.

Years ago during a brainstorming session at Southwest Airlines I once facilitated, someone suggested adding chicken salad hors d’oeuvres as a complimentary treat. Then chairman and CEO Herb Kelleher relied, “If that doesn’t help us keep the cost of our fares as low as possible, chicken salad is chicken shit.”