Speaking of TED talks, on Thursday Baltimore played host to TEDx MidAtlantic.

Among many brain-bending talks was one by Joel Salatin, the now-famous farmer from Polyface Farms.

In Joel’s talk he challenged us to bring nobility and sacredness to our work. He said:

My success is tied to the cumulative effect of everyday stories, and faithfulness to injecting sacredness and nobility into every little action of my day. And when we allow that kind of sacredness, and that kind of nobility, to permeate every one of our actions, the world will be ennobled. The world will indeed rise up to meet us.

Today, Dave Troy, the man who conceived and oversaw the organization of TEDx MidAtlantic, made an interesting observation. He wrote:

How can we imbue marketing with nobility and sacredness? Not a knock, just asking. Thoughts? Seems the ultimate challenge.

I find this just a fascinating, challenging idea. Is there, or could there be, a noble core to marketing? Or is that idea just a joke? Is it an activity that can be pursued in a sacred way? Or is it inherently ignoble?

In looking at my own company, I see that my attempt to be honorable about marketing could probably be summed up as “when in doubt, avoid marketing”. Which is, if not a total cop-out, at least a pretty unsatisfying guideline. It’s an un-principle. A “first, do no harm” principle. It doesn’t carry much insight. But it’s my way of trying to avoid the “sexy umbrella” syndrome, a.k.a. “manipulating people into paying me money for my work when the simple merits of their situation would not otherwise lead them to do so”.

The closest I can get to identifying something “noble” in marketing is the idea that one really good way to market is not to market per se, but to simply, you know, help people. When they’re in distress, I try to help my customers quickly and with empathy. I guess at some level I’m doing this because I want them to like my product and talk about it with their friends, but when a frantic message appears from an engineer across the world who is under stress due to the software I wrote, I tell you what, I am not thinking “sweet! check out this marketing I’m about to do!” It’s much more personal. It’s fundamentally empathetic. “This person needs help. I am responsible for helping them. I am going to feel terrible until I do.” And I’ve found the result of that empathy is that, just as Joel says, the world has risen up to meet me.

So that’s one way I think marketing can be genuinely noble: honoring your responsibility for helping your customers.

But does that idea cover all the bases? I doubt it. What other principles could there be? Anyone have any ideas? I’d really love to hear them.