“Ugh. This is why I’m glad I build stuff, and not just market,” I thought to myself as I packed up my stuff.

I attended a session on marketing strategy recently, and I left with a sinking feeling in my gut, despite finding the material and methodologies instructive and insightful. I realized it stemmed from my disagreement with how the role of marketing and storytelling was portrayed.

There was one part of the session where the group tossed around ideas for how a sports apparel company might sell a fitness regime to a young mothers audience. The pitch angles involved were either aspirational messages of being tough and strong, or messages of inadequacy about how much strength is required to be a mom. Mostly these were plays on a mother’s identity and psychology.

A cynical voice rose in my head, “This is how unrealistic expectations of motherhood are created, in focus groups of marketers trying to sell products to moms.”

I wasn’t happy to be a cynic though. Why did I react so poorly to the session? I thought I just started grokking the role of storytelling in design!

So I went back to my strategy notes, and started thinking about value creation. In my eyes, the messages that played merely on the identity of motherhood didn’t create value for the customer. For the hypothetical client, messages create value capturing the attention of customers through emotional manipulation. For the customers, however, what value does the harping on motherhood provide?

Marketing and storytelling can be so much more than just capturing attention and “creating brand awareness.” As a marketer and storyteller, we have the opportunity to create value for the customer. Good marketing should teach and inspire. It should leave the customer with something more than just a desire to satisfy or a guilt to appease.

Marketing and storytelling is a key part of a competitive strategy. My concern is thus; are we creating value in the stories we tell, or merely manufacturing desire?

Related: Peter Merholz on why UX is better marketing than marketing.