When I chose a sports car I didn't want just another car I could drive to work in, nor did I need the hassle of an older classic. It's a perfect fit for me (and I didn't need to be marketed to).
Nigel, you may be confusing marketing with selling.
Marketing should be a two-way process of aligning a product and service proposition to the needs of a target customer, and then developing a communication and contact programme to ensure you (the target customer) know that said company have developed your ideal product and then ensuring that product can be provided to you in a way that you are likely to buy.
To draw a parallel with the world of dating, the shrewd marketeer is the one who builds immediate rapport with the girl and has her offering to give her number before he asks, the salesman is the one who says ""if I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me?"..
