tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18735381806031148042024-03-08T13:46:00.496-05:00Marketing in Reverse<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismiddings">
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</a>Chris Middingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11786540234584060198noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1873538180603114804.post-66992069092616951002013-03-22T16:31:00.000-04:002013-03-22T16:32:37.231-04:00Websites in ReverseOnce, websites were destinations. Users would interrupt what they were doing, go to a website, determine what action needed to be taken where, and accomplish a task. Website were a means to an end.<br />
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Designers struggled constantly with arcane rules, dashboards, coding, and competing demands from the people paying for the website. The overall idea was "design it, optimize it, update it" with limited information and feedback.<br />
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Now, users no longer have to interrupt what they are doing to accomplish tasks. Computer applications intercede at the exact moment a user is making a decision, and provide customized solutions tailored to that exact user. Users no longer need websites.<br />
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Designers program applications to do exactly one thing perfectly. The user responses are all that's needed to design, optimize, and update. The user determines how an application needs to behave, not the people paying for it. Applications are an end with no need for a means. Designers no longer need websites.<br />
<br />Chris Middingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11786540234584060198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1873538180603114804.post-33784774944371911012012-12-10T15:16:00.000-05:002012-12-10T15:16:11.057-05:00R&D in ReverseResearch and Development of new products and services used to be a secretive task performed in-house with the hope of bringing something to an unknowing market in time to recoup costs before it was inevitably copied by a competitor.<br />
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Now, R&D is open, crowd-sourced, and collaboratively designed in public. The market knows it's coming, and because they are co-developers, don't want a knock-off version from a competitor.<br />
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Eventually, brands will be known as mere catalysts, bringing sets of individual desires into reality as they embody and empower the collective thoughts of their customers.Chris Middingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11786540234584060198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1873538180603114804.post-61642328920450467512011-09-02T10:58:00.000-04:002011-09-02T10:58:32.442-04:00Public Relations in ReverseCompanies used to send press releases to media outlets in the hope of getting a story or mention so that they would have one-way access to the media outlet's audience. The media outlet would provide a third-party endorsement/denouncement of the brand by its inclusion.<br />
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Now, companies send press releases and opportunities directly to everyone in these audiences, engaging in two-way conversations. Everyone is now a publisher with the ability to endorse/denounce a brand.Chris Middingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11786540234584060198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1873538180603114804.post-41245536564814872592011-04-12T09:32:00.000-04:002011-04-12T09:32:08.785-04:00Products in ReverseProducts today are mass produced, anonymous, and disposable. Their impact on the environment, on health, on workers, and on quality is all but ignored. They're made all over the world and sold wholesale for the cheapest price possible, with the hope they'll be bought multiple times by the same person.<br />
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Soon, products will again be made locally by individuals, and sold directly to you by people you may know personally. Everything previously ignored -- environment, health, workers, quality -- will not be ignored, but celebrated. They'll be bought once, and last for generations.Chris Middingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11786540234584060198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1873538180603114804.post-57277590520601722522011-02-10T10:36:00.000-05:002011-02-10T10:36:38.578-05:00Companies in ReverseOnce, there were companies and consumers. Companies were monolithic, faceless, and bureaucratic. Employees were cogs in the machine, with no personality, loyalty, nor exposure to the public. Consumers' only duty was to consume; otherwise the company had no interest in them.<br />
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Soon, consumers will be valued as individuals, with interests other than consuming a particular product. Employees will be valued for their ability to directly connect with consumers as individuals, using their stories to attract more consumers, and creating a tribe of individuals that rally around what the company sells as a launching pad for exploring other aspects of their lives.Chris Middingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11786540234584060198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1873538180603114804.post-81887613543248862011-02-04T10:02:00.000-05:002011-02-04T10:02:21.029-05:00Employees in ReverseEmployers used to find talent anywhere and physically move them to where it was most convenient to the employer. Employees were expected to drop their gender, their parenthood, and their personalities from their workplace behavior. They were expected to dress a certain way and in every way become more like their employer and coworkers. If an employee had to talk to the public, their language would be scripted and stilted.<br />
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Soon, employees will be in control. Their ability to work anywhere, gender, parenthood, and personality will be what is valued. Their employers will become more like them. When they talk to the public it will be them speaking.<br />
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</span></span>Chris Middingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11786540234584060198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1873538180603114804.post-18043014950560705432010-12-16T09:23:00.000-05:002010-12-16T09:23:01.651-05:00Computers in ReverseComputers once took up entire floors of buildings, with lab-coated technicians catering to their every whim. They served the machine. Computer interfaces were extremely difficult to communicate with, essentially making all users programmers.<br />
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Computers are now so small they fit in your pocket or ear, and are essentially disposable. Computers will be even more ubiquitous soon: in your refrigerator, on the recycling bin, on your trash can, even in your toilet, monitoring your health. The machine will serve us. Computer interfaces will be so easy to use that children, the elderly -- anyone of any ability -- will easily communicate with them.Chris Middingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11786540234584060198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1873538180603114804.post-30492623184263043992010-12-16T09:22:00.000-05:002010-12-16T09:22:16.712-05:00Advertising in ReverseAdvertisers used to pursue media outlets that had audiences that might be interested in what they had to offer. A bland, ubiquitous ad would then serve to generate some interest in what the advertiser was selling. Ads were loud, stupid, puerile, condescending, and expensive. Media was in control.<br />
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Advertisers will soon connect directly with consumers. They'll create thousands of dynamic ads, each reflecting the consumers' preferences, and target consumers with one-on-one precision by listening to what the consumer is doing: what they search for & how often; how they seek information; how they describe product benefits to their peers. Consumers can choose to see/hear or not see/hear these ads. The consumer is in control.Chris Middingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11786540234584060198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1873538180603114804.post-31954055905232408332010-12-16T09:20:00.000-05:002018-07-19T07:17:26.447-04:00Purchasing in ReverseConsumers used to go through a funnel process when deciding what to buy: contact sellers, evaluate the options, reduce choices based on needed criteria. The consumer would then go to the marketplace and find the best price/package/service, relying on the seller to fill in information gaps. Once bought, the consumer and the seller would never speak again unless there was a problem or repurchase.<br />
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Now, consumers evaluate products and services completely outside the knowledge and control of sellers. They come to the marketplace more educated than sellers, ready to buy. If the seller is foolish, this will be the only point of contact they have with their buyer. Once bought, consumers will remain engaged, promoting or denigrating what they bought, in public. They will broadcast their experience to their peers.Chris Middingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11786540234584060198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1873538180603114804.post-48819212151454200032010-12-08T08:47:00.000-05:002010-12-08T08:47:11.943-05:00Social Media in ReverseSocial sites are currently destinations to see what your social circle had been up to. They are also places where advertisers can target you with extreme precision. After all, you not only tell them all the people & things you like, what you talk about, who you talk to, and when you talk to them, you also provide them with constant updates about your preferences, activities, and location.<br />
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This will change. Rather than social media sites being destinations, social media will pervade the web and mobile. You'll never be online alone -- your social contacts will be there with recommendations, preferences, wish lists, and opinions, some from the past, some live. You'll also be providing the same to them, so much so that you'll be earning commissions on what you recommend and is subsequently bought.<br />
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Eventually, social media and websites will be using you as the vehicle for their ads. You'll have your own ad rate. You'll be bundled up with others like you, and this block of social media influencers will be bought and sold to advertisers at auction.Chris Middingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11786540234584060198noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1873538180603114804.post-48139672546712122512010-11-23T09:16:00.001-05:002011-07-21T08:39:47.234-04:00Ecommerce in ReverseThe 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.Chris Middingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11786540234584060198noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1873538180603114804.post-63282309806537492752010-11-18T10:31:00.000-05:002010-11-18T16:10:53.694-05:00Marketing in ReverseMarketing 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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I call this <b>Marketing in Reverse</b> because it takes everything in marketing and turns it upside down.<br />
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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 <i>buying</i> their way to sales, smaller companies now <i>earn</i> 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.Chris Middingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11786540234584060198noreply@blogger.com2