The Internet's ecommerce model is currently business-centric. Consumers are expected to remember their favorite websites and use those websites to purchase or otherwise interact.
Soon, ecommerce will be consumer-centric. Why should a user have to tell a website that they already purchased the product they are recommending from a competitor? Why should consumers have to create multiple accounts, multiple wish lists, multiple gift recipient lists, and multiple purchase histories? Consumer preferences will eventually carry from one site to the next, putting the consumer in charge of their own data, sharing data where they choose.
Eventually, consumers' data will have a value that websites will pay the consumer to share. Past purchase history, preferences, and wish lists will belong to the consumer, and websites will use this data to customize their sites to the consumer's preference.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Marketing in Reverse
Marketing used to be an advertiser with a bullhorn indiscriminately, to use Seth Godin's phrase, "shouting at strangers." If even 1 person in 100 turned their head, or otherwise acknowledged the ad, the marketer considered their efforts a success. Never mind the 99 people who were distracted or otherwise upset by the barrage of ads -- the marketer didn't care about those people at all.
Fast forward to the present. Marketing is now a consumer with a laser pointer, carefully selecting what advertising message they want to hear. They ignore TV/Radio/Magazine ads, consider direct mail junk, block online ads, and screen phone calls. They choose which brands they will follow in the medium they prefer, when they prefer to. Advertisers now have to be available to the consumer when and where they want to hear or see their message.
I call this Marketing in Reverse because it takes everything in marketing and turns it upside down.
Big brands used to be the only ones who could afford mass advertising; smaller companies were stuck with a yellow pages listing and direct mail. Through search marketing and social media, because the consumer is now in charge, small companies are at a comparative advantage -- the playing field is now level. Instead of a big advertiser buying their way to sales, smaller companies now earn the consumer's attention. Money no longer matters -- great content, and great interaction, matters. Success in the places consumers now choose to interact no longer depends on company size.
Fast forward to the present. Marketing is now a consumer with a laser pointer, carefully selecting what advertising message they want to hear. They ignore TV/Radio/Magazine ads, consider direct mail junk, block online ads, and screen phone calls. They choose which brands they will follow in the medium they prefer, when they prefer to. Advertisers now have to be available to the consumer when and where they want to hear or see their message.
I call this Marketing in Reverse because it takes everything in marketing and turns it upside down.
Big brands used to be the only ones who could afford mass advertising; smaller companies were stuck with a yellow pages listing and direct mail. Through search marketing and social media, because the consumer is now in charge, small companies are at a comparative advantage -- the playing field is now level. Instead of a big advertiser buying their way to sales, smaller companies now earn the consumer's attention. Money no longer matters -- great content, and great interaction, matters. Success in the places consumers now choose to interact no longer depends on company size.
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