Business of Marketing and Branding Marketing and branding ideas for business marketing

Merry Christmas everyone, and a peaceful and safe 2009

There are always plenty of things to worry about, but for the next few days I hope you enjoy the simple pleasure of spending time with friends and/or family.

Let's make it a cracking 2009. Merry Christmas.

Marketing peril – drawing conclusions based on your own bias

We're all prone to it.
I give you an example; there is clear evidence that people are moving from watching television to spending more time online. No argument there. But then I read a post by Seth Godin yesterday, in which he drew a really tricky conclusion from this fact. His post essentially suggests that the enormous amount of work that has gone into building Wikipedia's is the result of people switching off their television sets, in favour of contributing to worthwhile endeavours such as Wikipedia.

He said: "All those hours, all that work. Where did the time and effort come from?"

Here is my issue:

This thinking presumes that spending more time online changes people's behaviour from entertainment seekers to contributors to worthwhile intellectual activity.

I think that the vast majority of people who used to watch Baywatch or cop shows now watch Youtube and play Warcraft or play a quiz on Facebook. Not contribute to Wikipedia.

The reason I raise this point is that I believe that Seth Godin fell prey to a fundamental marketing trap: he drew a conclusion about the world based on his own bias. Seth doesn't watch TV. I actually believe that if there had been no TV he would probably have spent his nights reading books or writing another one. But that's not what the majority of people would necessarily do.

Largely, people watch (or watched) television to be entertained. I'd argue that they now substitute watching TV by going online to be entertained. That's not black and white of course; there will be people who have actually changed their behaviour and now contribute to Wikipedia or another worthwhile exchange of ideas. But in general terms, the internet has simply provided a richer, more diverse and more interactive substitute for television.

For me, it reminds me of the fact that it is easy to draw conclusions about people, their preferences and their behaviours based on your own bias, and the slippery slope it takes you on. Timely reminder for me, as I work to understand a new set of customers in my new role with Aconex.
PS:I'm not having a go at Seth here. His contribution to clear marketing thinking is second to none and I recommend anyone to read his blog/books.

The Meme of 8 – eight things you didn’t know about me

Like many, I feel a bit self conscious about this slightly daggy game of "8 things about yourself", however, I enjoy reading others, so after Nick Rice tagged me, I thought I'd play anyway.

1. I am 6'7" or 201 centimeters, which makes international flight only bearable in a bulkhead seat.
2. I left Holland age 22, lived in the Algarve (south coast of Portugal) for four years before backpacking around the world and ending up in the most livable city in the world, Melbourne, Australia.
3. The city I live is also home to wild Penguins. Yes, real ones.
4. When alive, my father was a journalist, published three novels as well as poetry. I wonder what he would have thought of The Age of Conversation.
5. The reason I post so infrequently are 3 1/2 and 7 months old. So I post between 6 and 7 in the morning as a rule, in between serving breakfast.
6. I used to play drums in a band, and recorded a single. (vinyl, that's how old I am) It failed dismally, but my band days were fantastic. Really fantastic.
7. I regret never learning to speak Portuguese properly when I lived there. Arguably the most beautiful language in the world.
8. I don't particularly like starting a sentence with "I"

Ok, let's see if these good people will play this daggy game too...

Mike Sansone

David Berkowitz

Geert Desager

Emily Reed

Clive Birnie

Charmell Slaughter

Philip Woodgate

Pranav Chavda

Apologies…technical problems

I won't bore you with the detail, but trying to edit the post "turning people into brands" completely stuffed up my blog design..I need a blog doctor, quick so I can post it after all. I will do my best to re-post it without the screwed up design.

Moved to WordPress

I've moved my blog to wordpress to get the benefit of the additional functionality etc. What I don't know if all the people who have subscribed to my feed have now suddenly lost me...this was probably a little risky. Please let me know if you have lost my feed and had to come back and re-subscribe. I do apologise if that happened.