Why so many marketing directors hate marketing

Most marketing directors find other people's marketing messages irritating, whether TV ads, direct mail campaigns, SMS marketing, outbound call-centre marketing, billboards, press ads, mobile marketing. Consumers are increasingly fed up too. Get ready for the biggest shifts in marketing strategy for a generation -- forced on the industry by the ever-growing influence of social networks, coupled with online search, impatient and intolerant consumers, and by massive overload with general advertising noise. Getting noticed means more than shouting louder. The future is about personal relevance, information and revelation as you become a consumer guide along their journey of life. It means a radical rethink about command and control, blockbuster campaigns. Impact on marketing strategies -- what every marketing director needs to know. How to prevent your campaigns from bombing and looking last-century. How to keep pace with the mood of your customers, using technology sensitively and wisely to position your products and services at exactly the right time and in the right way, reading the mind and emotion of your customers with deep insight and accuracy. Comment by Patrick Dixon after his conference keynote presentation on the future of marketing at DED2011 Mediamind event in Singapore.