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“The customer is always right,” is the mantra of a marketing agency where things have gone very very wrong. They stand by this tired, abused, and misleading cliché as the gospel that will not lead them to glory, but will at least keep the lights on for a bit longer.

This is the YES MAN Agency.

Maliciously obedient to clients, they deliver bullshit with a smile, trading integrity and creativity for security. At least until the client fires them for doing what they are told or the company folds.

Though the YES MAN Agency usually lives to fight another day, it only has dull tools in its arsenal. Its equity decreases as their portfolio of reputable work diminishes. Star employees move on so they can actually shine. Soon it becomes a pale imitation of the agency it aspired to be, surviving by preying the naivety of their clients.

So where exactly do these YES MAN agencies go wrong? Sacrifice. The “S” word is something that cannot be avoided. There is, however, a choice of what you are willing to give up.

A decent living can be made snatching the crumbs that fall down the cracks from the adult table, hanging on the purse strings of clients. Or, you can choose to stay thin and trim, learn to say “Thanks, but no thanks,” and move on to clients that are more worthy of your talents.

Your choice.

For any author, it is important to establish a sense of authority in their writing. They must prove to the reader that they are not only knowledgeable of their topic, but have a strong grasp of the English language. This, however, is not an excuse to be a poser.

Writing that is rich and ornate comes off as pretentious and hard to comprehend. It can put your audience on guard and your credibility in question. Instead, Strunk and White, in their ubiquitous book on writing, The Elements of Style, advise readers to practice plainness, simplicity, order, and sincerity.

It means using your thesaurus to aid in the flow of your prose, not to find ten-dollar words to make you look smarter. It means stop using adjectives and adverbs when a regular noun or verb will do. It means it’s okay to use figures of speech if it will help get your point across, but don’t push it. Finally, it means writing sentences that cover the subject without seeming like you love the sound of your own voice.

It is tempting to put on airs for your audience. However, going to great heights to impress others often leaves you open to fall flat on your face. It is far better to be yourself and use plain English. It will help you gain the respect of your reader, and keep your message intact.

Whether it’s around a campfire, on a rug in a classroom, or whispered between covered lips and eager ears, everyone loves a good story. It is an age old way of influencing behavior, making it a very useful tool for marketers. Narratives create a more immersive experience, causing consumers to spend more time on a site, leading to more conversions, and increasing the likelihood they will share the experience with others.

Non-profits have found that personal narratives can help pull in donors and volunteers, while comforting the afflicted and their families. The Day I Found Out, a website developed by the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, does this to great effect by sharing the stories of a community of cancer survivors. By sharing a myriad of stories, they guarantee visitors will find someone they relate to, and the message of universal hope shines through.

Canon takes the multiple stories bit in a more playful direction with their “Your Second Shot” project. The camera company encourages people to recapture moments lost using cameras that do not work well in low light –unlike the Canon PowerShot. A variety of real life stories are shared and visitors even have the chance to share their story to add to the list of recovered moments.

In a very ambitious effort from a very ambitious brand, Mercedes drops visitors into a personalized story called “Sensuality & Sense.” Written by author Joey Goebel, the short story features over 40 hand-illustrated pagestates digitally dissected into 200 layers, to created an interactive story that uses photos, favorites, and a few personal questions to put the user in the narrative. Though the process of personalizing the story may have some interesting drop off rates, the pay off is a beautiful experience that arrests users to the idea of the Mercedes CLS as the car for them and their world.

By using a narrative, marketers are able to present information in a more engaging way. Consumers let down their guard, and practice suspension of disbelief. Soon they find themselves going down the rabbit hole without even realizing they've taken the pill, leading to more happy endings for marketers.

Ever see someone so desperate for attention they’ll do anything? At the cost of their self-respect, they will engage in the most crass behavior, using shock without the awe to court attention. They can be seen at a bar or any social gathering trying to score with a chick, or on your television screen trying to score with consumers against a glutton of other advertisers.

As people are more and more inundated with media, advertisers are getting more and more desperate for ways to get their attention. Sometimes this takes the medium to new highs, but often inspires it to go to new lows. Instead of personality and charm, we’re stuck with user-submitted posers, homosexuality as a punchline, sexed up octogenarians promoting web hosting and fancy naming conventions, and companies that feel just because they donate to a cause it gives them the privilege to make fun of the plight of Tibetan Monks.

Shock tactics do help advertisers gain attention. However, whether that attention is a good thing or a bad thing depends on the audience's reaction. Take Groupon’s Super Bowl ads for example. Though Crispin Porter & Bogusky, a firm known for pushing the creative envelope, made some though provoking ads, the people they offended could not be silenced or bribed by great deals on trips or fancy dinners at ethnic restaurants. It’s no wonder they are doing emergency damage control, and the ads have been stopped post haste.

People prefer their ads with a twist, not a shock. Ads must be endearing, revealing something about the way people live their lives, or enhance the way they see themselves or the world. The best ads do not make light of themselves, their product, or their audience. They show their depth of understanding of their target audience, which in the end does more to form a strong, lasting relationship. Shock tactics do the opposite, distancing advertisers from their audience, and their goals.

Ecommerce is changing. Not just the shopping carts, graphics, layouts, or best practices. The platforms, the very way that people are buying and selling goods and services, are beginning to take on new characteristics. These new models are less dependent on brand recognition, than lifestyles, scarcity, and fulfilling a niche.

One such platform that has emerged is email ecommerce. A few retailers have managed to turn what is usually considered spam into brand utility. The retailer, Gilt Group, is an exclusive, online version of the invitation-only New York Sample Sale. By offering luxury items at insider prices, they have cultivated a niche market without resorting to bottom basement tactics on the web. Another example is Groupon, and its myriad of clones, which instead of fulfilling a niche, have used the same email marketing tactics to embrace the social aspects of the web. Many people who use the popular service are unaware of or have forgotten that the deals actually depend on group participation, and aren't guaranteed. Just as customers reach the tipping point to earn savings, so has this once annoying and abused medium has now reach a new point of actual utility.

Another alternative to the traditional store to emerge is the embedded platform. These take advantage of lifestyles in order to influence purchases. Platforms such as iTunes, Nike+, Kindle, the aforementioned Gilt Group, and a number of proprietary branded applications make purchases more organic because they become a part of a person's daily life. Whenever a person thinks “Hey, I need X, Y, or Z,” it is now readily available at their fingertips, with less thought and more feeling involved.

As the Internet continues to grow and become a greater part of our lives no matter where we are or what we’re doing, so will the tactics used to keep our attention. As far as ecommerce goes, the best platforms to emerge will not only understand the trends of technology, but the human mindset. They will become more than just boring a website, a message automatically sent to spam, or an easily forgotten and deleted app, but a lifestyle choice that brings the experience full circle for customers and companies alike.