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Book Review: Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends into Customers

Even though targeting is arguably the centerpiece of the marketing concept, most mass media (e.g., television, radio) do not allow marketers to target consumers with any degree of precision. Direct marketing has arisen as an alternative to such mass marketing. Seth Godin’s book Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends into Customers presents the latest thinking on direct marketing (interested readers can obtain the first four chapters of the book free by visiting www.permission.com). The tone is similar to the series of books written by Martha Rogers and Don Peppers on oneto-one marketing (e.g., Peppers and Rogers 1993). Godin presents a new idea—permission marketing, which envisions every customer shaping the targeting behavior of marketers. Consumers provide interested marketers with the information about the types of advertising messages they would like to receive. The marketers then use this information to target advertisements and promotions to the consumer. This is seen as reducing clutter and lowering search costs for the consumer while increasing the targeting precision of marketers. Marketers obtain the trust of the consumer and build two-way relationships with consumers.