Did you read the recent article in Advertising Age entitled Marketing Reality Check: Blogs, Pods, RSS? It’s a cautionary tale about not getting too carried away with the hype surrounding emerging interactive marketing vehicles like blogs, RSS, and wireless / mobile advertising. The AdAge article states,
According to Jupiter Research, just 7 percent of Americans write blogs, while 22 percent read them. Meanwhile, a separate study from WorkPlace Print Media says that 88 percent of Americans have no idea what RSS is.”
While in my gut I feel that these numbers are right, and Ad Age makes some excellent points – they miss the main one. One could easily conclude, as Ad Age did, that if your marketing goal is ‘Reach‘, then use a mass media like Television. They make a good point. But here’s where they failed to bring home a really important point for their readers. Towards the end of the story they say that web 2.0 tools like blogs and podcasts and cellphones are great if you want to reach influencers. Ah, the cute and cuddly marketing buzz word for leaders.
There’s always a group of early adopters or trailblazers that go before us to forge new paths. While some of us look up to these people, the majority of people think they’re a bit daft, comfortable in the knowledge that if there really is something of value down the new path – they’ll learn of it upon the explorer’s return.
Sometimes the trailblazers never return and we assume they have perished. We avoid this path. Others return with seemingly nothing to show for it, and we’re delighted with the sensible choice we made to stay on the main road.
And then – there are those that return with riches. And we pour over every detail of their journey so that we may travel down the path to find our own riches. We listen to their directions, where to find food and shelter, and how they managed to complete their journey in one piece. Soon, the once dense trail is well trodden and years later, it is indistinguishable from the main road.
For a marketer, the moral of this story is that YOU WANT those trailblazers cutting the trail with your brand of machete, wearing your best pair of hiking boots, applying your latest sunscreen/insect repellent and staying fresh with your amazing new deodorant.
Go ahead; give the trailblazers those hiking boots for free. Because when these influencers come back with gold and jewels, others will surely follow, and they’ll copy those early adopters right down to their BlackBerry’s and blogs. You’ll want the masses using your products and services just like the trailblazers did.
What starts as your niche market – becomes your mass market. More importantly, you can reach that mass market by only marketing to a few. Hint: it’s cheaper to market to a few, than a whole bunch. It’s even better to have the few carry your message to the masses for free (as in buzz marketing, guerilla marketing or word of mouth marketing). It’s also more effective because the masses believe the treasure bearing trailblazers more than they ever will your billboards and TV commercials.
There’s a whole new mass market out there, and the path that leads to them is the one less traveled.
Reading the article reminded my of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This scene in particular: Scene 2
MORTICIAN: Bring out your dead!
[clang]
Bring out your dead!
[clang]
Bring out your dead!
[clang]
Bring out your dead!
[clang]
Bring out your dead!
[clang]
CUSTOMER: Here’s one — nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not dead!
MORTICIAN: What?
CUSTOMER: Nothing — here’s your nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not dead!
MORTICIAN: Here — he says he’s not dead!
CUSTOMER: Yes, he is.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not!
MORTICIAN: He isn’t.
CUSTOMER: Well, he will be soon, he’s very ill.
DEAD PERSON: I’m getting better!
CUSTOMER: No, you’re not — you’ll be stone dead in a moment.
MORTICIAN: Oh, I can’t take him like that — it’s against regulations.
DEAD PERSON: I don’t want to go in the cart!
CUSTOMER: Oh, don’t be such a baby.
MORTICIAN: I can’t take him…
DEAD PERSON: I feel fine!
CUSTOMER: Oh, do us a favor…
MORTICIAN: I can’t.
CUSTOMER: Well, can you hang around a couple of minutes? He won’t
be long.
MORTICIAN: Naaah, I got to go on to Robinson’s — they’ve lost nine
today.
CUSTOMER: Well, when is your next round?
MORTICIAN: Thursday.
DEAD PERSON: I think I’ll go for a walk.
CUSTOMER: You’re not fooling anyone y’know. Look, isn’t there
something you can do?
DEAD PERSON: I feel happy… I feel happy.
[whop] Mortician bludgeons DEAD PERSON
CUSTOMER: Ah, thanks very much.
MORTICIAN: Not at all. See you on Thursday.
CUSTOMER: Right.
[clop clop]
Am I being a little too esoteric for you? Let me see if I can connect the dots. Traditional media is the soon to be the DEAD PERSON and the Internet is the MORTICIAN with the club. Things like social media (blogs, consumer generated content, etc.) and wireless devices that connect people, ideas, with their location are the Holy Grail. It has to do with the disruptive nature of the web. And like the Monty Python example, these disruptive tools aren’t waiting around to take their place at the head of the table.
