I've been discussing the New Rules of Marketing with David Meerman Scott. His conjecture is that you no longer have to buy or beg exposure through advertising and PR... but only if you have a story that people want to tell and re-tell. As if David was listening, this month Jason Snell of Macworld wrote about the new iPhone:

After announcing the iPhone back in January, the company let the hype-storm build naturally. Trust me, if companies could simply buy the kind of attention the iPhone received before its release, they would. The iPhone attracted that attention on its own.

Apple and its products build a buzz. Do the products at your company? I hope you're thinking about using the techniques of David's new rules. But first, make sure you have something to say that people care to hear.

We've long known the power of buyer and user personas. These biographies remind people inside your company that they are not the targets for our products or our collateral. I don't expect sales and marketing people to understand half of what we produce; technology briefs and white papers are written by a technical writer for a technical reader relying on the web site or sales person as a distribution method. The trick is that we must communicate something meaningful to the buyer in the language of the buyer. No vendor speak, no marketing babble, and no technical gobbledegook. The new rules let us take the message direct to our audience so let's say something meaningful.