People must still come first… especially now. In growth strategies, in marketing plans, in the systems we automate. And in every single interaction we create or allow to scale.
Yet many brands are actively eroding their own equity through relentless digital overreach. Email lists treated like owned media instead of borrowed trust. “Permission” interpreted as a lifetime license rather than a moment-by-moment agreement. AI-driven automation, retargeting, and yield optimization deployed without restraint, context, or empathy.
What was once called “smart targeting” has too often become “high-frequency harassment”… across inboxes, feeds, ads, and devices. ALWAYS-ON DOESN’T MEAN ALWAYS-WELCOME.
The irony? These tools are sold as growth engines, yet in practice they are accelerating brand fatigue, emotional unsubscribes, long-term trust decay… and destruction of hard-earned brand equity. It makes you wonder how many brand managers, or more importantly, CMOs, actually subscribe to their own emails, browse their sites anonymously, or experience their brand the way real customers do. If they did, the disconnect would be impossible to ignore.
Customer experience is no longer limited to product quality, delivery, or support. Marketing is the experience. Every impression, interruption, and follow-up either strengthens or weakens the relationship. Permission is not a checkbox, Permission is not a database, Permission is your RETURN ON RELATIONSHIP.
And permission is always a two-way street… with the controls firmly in the hands of your audience. They decide when you earn attention, when you’re welcome, and when you’ve crossed the line. Be their green light, not their notification fatigue, not their unsubscribe trigger, not the stop sign they learn to ignore.
Because real growth doesn’t come from squeezing more yield out of people… it comes from earning the right to stay in the conversation. Earn permission, honor attention, and let RETURN ON RELATIONSHIP do the compounding.