Once, not so long ago, as Monday
morning came again employees would
gather around the office water
cooler to talk and catch up on
weekend activities. In this water
cooler gathering place you could be
quite confident that most everyone
would be familiar with Sunday
night’s episode of Seinfeld… and
your feeble impression of Kramer's
awkward movements and border-line
insanity would not fall on deaf ears
and result in blank stares of
bewilderment…
Today however, with
the fragmentation of so many
mediums, and especially TV, a vast
majority of the water cooler crowd
would indeed give you a blank stare;
wondering what in the heck you were
even talking about.
Today there are hundreds and soon to
be thousands of T.V. channels…
Gather around the water cooler today
and instead of 'continuity' flowing
throughout the group you are almost
certainly guaranteed of hearing a
variety of out of sync
conversations. On one side of the
water cooler you’ll hear
conversations about the many reality
television shows, the latest crime
investigation drama, the hot new
teen soap and a smattering of
opinions on worldly affairs. Take a
step slightly to the left and you’ll
be exposed to the internet’s latest
bizarre video find, and a rehash of
humorous internet classics… move
your attention a little further down
the line and you are sure to hear
the bantering about of a handful of
newly discovered web sites, blogs or
social networks…
Mass advertising has gone the way of
the dodo… and although many will
attempt to grasp onto it with their
last dying breath as it inevitably
fades away into the past like the
dinosaurs of old, others will
embrace the fragmentation as new
opportunity and go forth with a
clearer vision of the future; using
direct communication, targeted
customers and powerful messages to
dominate markets and decimate
competitors. The big question is…
which path will you follow?
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Born out of the fiery forges of
confidence, consumer trust, and
highly reachable prospects -
Advertising was once synonymous with
mass marketing.
Today however those fiery forges are
quickly getting smothered by
consumer non-confidence, skepticisms
and a market place so fragmented it
will never again be put back
together. Like Humpty Dumpty’s all
the kings’ horses and all the kings’
men… many will try… but all will
fail.
Conceived by Ptolemy at the
beginning of the first century
A.C.E., the earth he claimed was the
center of the universe fixed and
immovable and that everything else
revolved around it…
Not until a century and a half later
when Copernicus proved him wrong did
incorrect calculations, theories and
incongruities begin to make sense.
When an assumption is based on a
falsehood, like the earth being a
fixed object and everything else
revolving around it, it’s no wonder
things get skewed, are unbelievable
and are full of inconsistency.
Mass marketing is like Ptolemy’s
theory of a fixed earth with
everything revolving around it; it’s
doomed to failure because it’s
wrong. Mass marketing worked… not
very good, but sort of… in a time
when people could trust, markets
we’re easier to access via limited
media choices and cynical thoughts
weren’t the first ideas to pop into
our head whenever someone made a
statement.
Using a corporate-centric model,
like Ptolemy’s incorrect earth
theory as a starting point to build
a company or advertising campaign
upon, creates a week and shaky
foundation. With even the slightest
of breeze a smart competitor can
bring the business or advertising
campaign crashing to its knees.
Fragmentation… a mass advertiser's
worst nightmare is now reality, It’s
no longer on its way… it's here now,
just look around…
The decentralization of the
population makes mass advertising
nearly impossible today - 20 years
ago the masses congregated in
central downtown locations, at city
fairs and city parades, today
however with the rise of walled
cities, steady growth of the suburbs
and rural communities, the
population tends to stay with their
own, rather than venturing to the
larger, busier and scarier city
centers. These autonomous groups
hold their own parades and fairs
have their own shopping centers and
fast food locations, movie theaters
and service providers – they no
longer have a need to go to the big
city… everything they need is within
their reach.
The good news is that consumer
consumption is on the rise, in 1960
consumers spent $4.8 trillion on
goods and services, and in 2000 it
exceeded $20 trillion. As
consumption increases, the need for
more and more suppliers also
increases - motivating big business
to rapidly set up shop in the
suburbs and rural communities before
competitors do. This rapid perpetual
supply and demand cycle, along with
fear as crime rates continue to
rise, increasingly motivates the
masses to move from cities to the
suburbs and rural areas where they
feel safer – 'rural areas and
suburbs are a nice place to raise a
family or live in peace and quiet
and still having access to all the
amenities of the big city.' Is what
many are thinking.
The advent of the Internet has
allowed millions and millions of
people to make a living as a direct
result of its existence, and
millions more by supporting it,
supplying it and using it to
facilitate the selling of their
goods and services to people that
prior to its inception, wouldn’t
have had access to.
Since 1999 I’ve made a fulltime
living selling software to technical
support personnel over the internet.
Several bed and breakfasts that I’m
familiar with are booked up a full
year in advance - thanks to their
web site - with guests from Europe,
Asia and other continents that they
would have never been able to access
had it not been for their web site.
A classic screen door carpenter I’m
acquainted with sells custom made
screen doors all over the world
thanks to the Internet. E-bay is
another great example; at last count
its selling platform allowed for
over 1 million people to make a full
time living off its service.
Media in the US has also exploded
over the last 100 years; there are
now 2425 daily newspapers, 90 years
ago there were only 46. Canadian
media has exploded as well, recent
figures indicate we have about 10%
of the daily newspapers as our
American neighbors… a number well on
target as we also have 10% of their
population (30 Million in Canada –
300 Million in the US).
In the early 1900’s you could count
the magazines that existed on your
fingers, today there are well over
10,000 print magazines and 100’s of
thousands of electronic newsletters
(e-newsletters) that can be found
scattered all over the Internet.
With the decentralization of the
masses, access to a global community
via the internet and a media
explosion never before witnessed in
modern history it’s no longer
possible to treat the masses like
sheep and herd them about.
Fragmentation has scattered to wind
that herd of mass consumers
advertisers once thrived on.
Migration to the ‘burbs is
increasing, the internet gives more
and more people the autonomy to live
where they want, mass media is
fragmenting to a finite point -
supplying every niche imaginable
with its own medium, and the
internet is compounding the media
fragmentation dilemma… as electronic
newsletters, blogs, social networks
and web pages are ever increasingly
becoming available.
Thousands and thousands of micro
communities, 10’s of thousands of
media formats and the autonomy to
live wherever you want clearly
indicates that mass marketing is
dead. There is no mass herd left to
market to. Try as you might, holding
onto bad advertising tactics and
strategies will only result in
skewed sales figures, unbelievable
sales drops, absent customer
loyalty, and inconsistent, if any,
business growth.
Fragmentation has put an end to the
effectiveness of mass marketing -
but opened us up to thousands of new
ways to access and communicate with
potential customers…
