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Our Culture (high and popular) is usually created by people who are happy with the systems the world has given them. Magazine editors don't spend a lot of time wishing for better technology. Opera singers focus more on their singing than on microphone technologies. Novelists proudly use typewriters.
Sure, there are exceptions like Les Paul (who developed the electric guitar) and Mitch Miller (who invented reverb) but these exceptions prove the rule: often, culture is invented by people who are too busy to seek out new technology.
(The bottom left corner of the grid shows the tech-phobic culture-phobic contingent. Not relevant to this discussion so much, but scary nonetheless).
If you take a look at this chart, you can see the danger anyone who introduces new technology faces. While you'll attract Les Paul and the 37Signals guys, you're more likely to attract spammers, scammers, opportunity seekers and others that will bring our culture down as easily as they'll bring it up.
The challenge is in designing structures and transparency that will attract the good guys while burying or repelling those that seek the new technology (because they can't find anywhere else to go). In other words, you either need to move the top left to the top right (not easy, but possible*), or educate the bottom left of the grid in how to contribute to the culture (really difficult indeed). The best new media (like blogs and possibly twitter) open doors to people who didn't used to have a voice. The worst ones (like blogs and possibly twitter) merely create new venues for scams and senseless yelling.
*The much-anticipated folding of Gourmet magazine is proof of what happens when the top left refuses to move right. Most of the Conde Nast empire is facing the abyss of this problem right now.
October 7, 2009
I just went through the hassle of trying to get some B2B firms the details needed to give me an informed quote on a project.
I visited eight sites. Six of them hide their email address. They use forms of one sort of another. One firm refused to accept more than 500 characters in the "how can we help you" box, while three of them wanted to know what state I was in, etc.
Email contact is like a first date. If you show up with a clipboard and a questionnaire, it's not going to go well, I'm afraid. The object is to earn permission to respond.
If you sell something, set up an address like "sales@xyz.com". Put this on your home page, "contact us if you're looking for more information or a price quote." Sure, you'll get a lot of spam, but deleting spam is a lot easier than finding customers. (Hint, ask your IT people to make it a mailto link, with a subject line built in. That way, you can use the subject line to find the good email).
October 6, 2009
In the 260 weeks from 1966 to 1970, there were only thirteen musical acts responsible for every #1 album on the Billboard charts.
In the 260 weeks that accounted for the first half of the 1970s, it was 26. (hat tip to John Marks for the stat).
Sometimes, we define a golden age in a market as a time of stability, when one or a few giants capture all of our attention. AT&T telephones, Superman comics, Beatles records, IBM computers, The New York Times… and now Google. Choices are easy, the market grows without a lot of effort and we marvel over the ease of success. Ironically, the success of these winners attracts quixotic entrepreneurs, people who set out to challenge the few who are winning. While we might root for these underdogs, it turns out that they're not the ones who usually change everything. The powerful are still too powerful.
The real growth and development and the foundations for the next era are laid during the chaotic times, the times that come after the leaders have stumbled. Harry Chapin didn't trip up the Beatles, but the breakup of the Beatles allowed Harry Chapin his chance. The next golden age of journalism, of communications, of fashion, of car design–those are being established now, in a moment when it's not so crowded at the top.
The very best time to launch a new product or service is when the market appears exhausted or depleted. There's more room at the top and fewer people in a hurry to get there.
October 5, 2009
The long tail is real, but sometimes the longest parts reach underwater. When there's enough choices, it means that some things will never get picked.
Charles Blow reports in the NY Times that:
"A study last year conducted by members of PRS for
Music, a nonprofit royalty collection agency, found that of the 13
million songs for sale online last year, 10 million never got a single
buyer and 80 percent of all revenue came from about 52,000 songs.
That’s less than one percent of the songs."
The internet has allowed ease of entry into the market. You can advertise anything, any service, any good, any piece of junk in your garage–essentially for zero. You can go into business effortlessly, telling yourself you'll just hang out on the long tail and do just fine. Understand that zero is a very real probability, perhaps even a likelihood. Derek reminds us that 0% of a really big number is still zero.
What direct marketers have always understood is that you must make something work in the small before you bet the farm and market it to the masses. If you can't sell to 1 in 1000, why market to a million?
October 4, 2009
30,000,000 people suffer from sinusitis, making it the most popular (!) disease in the US. I've had it off and on for years.
After much research, I'd like to share three tips:
This book is the single best one on the topic. It's smart and practical.
You might buy a nasal irrigator and use it twice a day. It's super weird, and it costs $100, and it works. Really.
And you could (I know, it's horrible) drink two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar every day.
This post is totally off topic, but if I can help a few of you make it through a long winter, it was worth it.
(Actually, to bring it back on topic, the question is: why didn't you know about this stuff already? The answer is that people don't like to talk about it. They don't like recommending a book about health because what if you don't like it or it backfires? And they certainly don't like talking about nasal irrigation. Who would? At a dinner party? At a golf game? When, exactly, does it come up in conversation? It turns out that word of mouth is a complex beast. Certain ideas spread merely because they're fun to talk about. Others, even if they're good ideas, languish. Not a lot you can do about this, unless you can hook your product or service to an idea that's naturally viral, as opposed to insisting that the market do the right thing.)
October 3, 2009
Jeff sent over this video, which I didn’t know was online. It’s almost two years old, and more informal (and a lot more self-focused) than my usual talks.
In my presentations, I don’t often go into detail about the tactics I’ve used on books I’ve marketed, so if that’s something you’re interested in, here you go. I hope the lessons from the book business work for you, whatever you sell.
[It’s possible that you won’t see the visuals at the link above. If that one doesn’t work change the format source on the right just below the box that holds the video.]
Here are the two most common pleas I hear from marketers,
"Our product is as remarkable as we can make it, and we're trying really hard and it's very important to us that people buy it, but despite our hard work, it's not selling!" (Hint: calling it a purple cow doesn't make it one).
and
"Our business is built around the status quo, and it's not fair that the market wants something else now."
In both cases, the marketing pitch is focused around the seller, not the buyer. You wouldn't (and don't) buy from someone who says you ought to choose them even though there's a cooler, more remarkable, cheaper, better product. You don't seek out or talk about status quo brands merely because the marketer is trying really hard.
If it's not good enough for you as a consumer, why should it be good enough for you as a marketer?
October 2, 2009
Just because someone offers you a lift, doesn't mean you have to take it.
In a joint venture or possible business arrangement, it's reassuring when the other person offers to drive. "Leave it to me," they might say, or, "I'm socializing this through the organization… be patient, I've done this before and we need to do it this way."
Often, this is true. It's the honest appraisal of a generous insider, someone who wants both of you to succeed.
But, just as you should never get in a car with a drunk driver, understand that the minute you let the other person drive, you've bought into their process. Spending three months or three years following someone off a cliff is nuts.
I'd rather disappoint you today and refuse your offer of a lift than end up with both of us having wasted hours and hours of time somewhere further down the road. No, you can't pitch this to your husband, that's my job. No, I won't stand by and watch you mangle this before the board. No, we're not going to interact with customers your way merely because it's the only way you know.
Thanks, but I'll drive this time.
October 1, 2009
Corey showed me the list of the most popular Wikipedia articles.
It's insane. It makes no sense. It has rock stars, dead dictators and body parts on it.
Huh? If you look at the top music of December, 1971, they're all songs you probably like. Pop music appeals to the masses, and the bestseller list was a fairly accurate indicator of what we were humming. All of us.
The way to understand lists that aren't vintage pop music is this: it isn't one list. It's four or five, mushed together. You have the list of rock acts, overlaid with the list of comic book heroes, etc. There isn't one person (at least I hope not) who's interested in all of these articles.
Seen like that, you can understand it. Sure, Batman gets seen more than the Green Lantern. Sure, Michael Jackson got seen more than ? and the Mysterians. And when you combine the lists, you get a mash.
Brands fall into the trap of combining market desires all the time. They forget that perhaps, just perhaps, the people buying diapers are different from the people buying hats, and putting diapers and hats into one combo pack isn't necessarily smart, even if both are bestsellers in their own right.
September 30, 2009
I haven't done a live public seminar in a while, and I hope to announce two before the end of the year. Stay tuned.
I also haven't done my favorite kind, though, which is a seminar for organizations that are good causes. If you work for (or run) a 501 3(c) organization, I hope you'll consider applying to come to a free session I'm going to run in New York on October 22nd.
If I can help you think through issues related to the new marketing, fundraising, earning permission and building ideas that spread, it will be an afternoon well spent for both of us. I don't do any consulting, so this is as close as I can come to working directly with your organization and helping you leverage the good work you're already doing.
There are limited seats, so please be sure to fill out the entire application. Deadline to apply is Monday, October 5. We'll send out invitations the next day.
PS an inspiring new book came out today. Worth a look.
September 29, 2009
