Marketing 101 Update

Well, I am off the hook for teaching the Marketing class, but it was a good time to take a look at the current state of the marketing environment and some of the trends that have marked the first few years of the 21st Century.

Old Versus New

One of the most interest bits that I came up with in my studies was a T-chart where I contrasted the “Old” Market and the “New” Market. I put “Old” and “New” in quotes because I don’t know if there is a clear demarcation between the two, but I definitely see a trend. There is a soft equator between the two markets. It is the advent, and steady adoption of the Internet. The Internet has changed the rules. It has shrunk the world. It has brought us closer. It has opened a world of opportunities that weren’t available before.

Some would say that the Internet is the clear demarcation between “Old” and “New”. The reason I say it is a soft equator is the Internet isn’t quite ubiquitous yet, and there are a number of net users who don’t understand all the opportunities it has to offer. That means there is a large number of people who either aren’t on the web or who don’t know how to fully leverage it to help them save money and find niche products.

In Chris Anderson’s book, The Long Tail, he talks about how markets before the Internet were predicated on the fact of scarcity. In other words, stores could stock only stock a finite amount of any one type of product. That means that only the most well-known, advertised or well-funded products would make it to the best stores. The remainder of the products in a class were left to battle it out in less established channels.

Contrast that with today where we have a nearly ubiquitous connection to the Internet. We have gone from a world where we had a very limited selection to having nearly infinite selection.

The Era of Post-Scarcity

This is a major tectonic plate shift when it comes to companies and markets that were built on the foundation of scarcity. In many ways, we are now in an era of post-scarcity. We are swimming in a sea of choices. Numbers that were skewed in the past by consumers choosing a product that was almost right, are now correcting themselves by consumers switching to products that are exact matches to their tastes and desires.

The market of the blockbuster is morphing into the market of infinite choice. Marketing decisions and considerations have changed drastically.

The List

So here is my list of differences between the “Old” market and the “New” market. I will state a characteristic of the “Old” market and then state its analog in the “New” market.

• Scarcity (The Hit/Blockbuster)…Post-Scarcity (The Long Tail)
• Broadcast (Network TV)…Narrowcast (Podcasts, You Tube)
• One Size Fits All…One Size Fits One
• Top 40 (Radio)…Top 25 Most Played (iPod)
• Celebrity Endorsement…Tribal Endorsement*
• Commercials…Skipped Commercials
• Brand & Message Dictated From on High…Brands Are Conversations (Cluetrain Manifesto)
• Customers…Community

*Tribal Endorsement – With ubiquitous contact coming from the Internet and Cell Technology comes a nearly constant connection with our closest friends or … tribe.

Of course lists are inherently flawed due to personal tastes, perspectives and the lack of time to fully explore all the angles. I offer it up as my views right now. Many of the thoughts in this list are a conglomeration of many conversations I have overheard both in person and on the net. The uniqueness here is my perspective observations on the issue.