Inbound Marketing hurts Innovation

I went to the HubSpot blog to read about Inbound Marketing Lessons from Phish. I left a comment there, but wanted to raise the question here too.

We all see that inbound marketing has become a key part of our marketing lives. And the success stories are analogous to those of real-estate investments. We all hear the stories about people who put nothing into it and get back incredible returns. The flip-side applies as well. For every one who super-succeeds, there are fifty who do mediocre or worse.

But here's my real concern. If buyers shut down cold-calling, email blasts, postal mail, and other more traditional marketing mechanisms, it's going to shape the way that manufacturers design products. #1 priority is going to be ability to create the all-powerful buzz. Because that's going to be the only mechanism to which the buyers are tuned-in.

Will innovators prioritize creation of flashy/cool features over the traditionally more important "solid architecture" and "core functionality" underneath? ...because if they don't, they're going to get buried by companies that do. Even if their product is head-and-shoulders above.