In your recent book, The Cluetrain Manifesto , you really give it to the marketing people. Not long ago, I was reading a marketing magazine that was filled with lots of interesting articles about how to market successfully. If marketing departments could lose some of their hostility towards customers, they would be taking a big step forward. A marketing department ought to be asking what customers want from the company in terms of products, services and interactions. Then it ought to be making those things real.
Marketers ought to be more on the customer's side than the company's.
In fact, the notion that we have to choose up sides is symptomatic of the problem. Well, first of all, you've got to stop the trickery. Write a Web site that tells the straight truth about your products. If you have to advertise, at least say something real about your product. Get your engineers and managers out talking with customers.