The guys at CopyBlogger.com turned me onto another Seth Godin idea: are you weird enough? His new book, We Are All Weird:The Myth of Mass and the End of Compliance talks about the end of mass marketing.
I'm not reviewing the book, so if you're looking for that go elsewhere. I haven't read the book yet. Still the idea is interesting, and like a lot of Seth's work, the idea is right in the title. We are all weirdos, and being a weirdo is a good thing.
This is why: the mass market appeals, a bit, to everyone, because it's not bad and there used to be no alternative. If you aren't mass market, though, you still have an appeal to someone. The web allows you to be genuine and express yourself. Everyone needs to do this. Now you can.
What's the plan? Create a website, or service, or product that caters to...you. Guy Kawasaki was recently talking about this (prior to Steve Jobs' passing) and saying that Apple didn't ask it's customers what they wanted. It gave them something cool. He recommends following that model and creating what you like in order to sell it. Obviously a meatball sundae won't be really successful, even if you like them, but there's a good chance that if you're weird enough (while not being completely out of the solar system) there will be people who appreciate you being a pioneer.
So ask yourself: what about you is weird? Of course, we need to agree on what weird is, in general. Godin says it's anything that is not mass market or "normal", It's also an opportunity. CopyBlogger's Sonia Simone talks about it as the long tail, which is everyone else in the world who is as weird as you are. It is the result of the fragmentation of our culture. Weird in your small town or high school isn't weird in the great big world.
Me? I like real estate, and independence, and alternate energy, and food security, and cooperative ventures, and business, and flying, and technology, and history, and politics. I have my own opinions on each of them, and they all relate to each other in a coherent and predictable way, but the result is that, for many people, I'm weird. I like remote, fly in real estate, and I want to own some with some other people in order to cooperatively raise beef in an off grid environment that doubles as a cowboy retreat that pays for itself.
But if that's weird today, imagine how weird it was in 1987. So weird it would almost have been impossible to accomplish. Today, however, I can market those ideas to as many people that share them as I can reach. I'm limited only by my ability to market the ideas and my ability to create a workable business model for them.
Why should you care? Simple. Now that the idea is out in the open you have a choice. Stick with mass or embrace weird. Weird lets you be you. Mass means you have to try to figure out everyone else. The two options are very different, and the choice between them will render very different results.
I'm not reviewing the book, so if you're looking for that go elsewhere. I haven't read the book yet. Still the idea is interesting, and like a lot of Seth's work, the idea is right in the title. We are all weirdos, and being a weirdo is a good thing.
This is why: the mass market appeals, a bit, to everyone, because it's not bad and there used to be no alternative. If you aren't mass market, though, you still have an appeal to someone. The web allows you to be genuine and express yourself. Everyone needs to do this. Now you can.
What's the plan? Create a website, or service, or product that caters to...you. Guy Kawasaki was recently talking about this (prior to Steve Jobs' passing) and saying that Apple didn't ask it's customers what they wanted. It gave them something cool. He recommends following that model and creating what you like in order to sell it. Obviously a meatball sundae won't be really successful, even if you like them, but there's a good chance that if you're weird enough (while not being completely out of the solar system) there will be people who appreciate you being a pioneer.
So ask yourself: what about you is weird? Of course, we need to agree on what weird is, in general. Godin says it's anything that is not mass market or "normal", It's also an opportunity. CopyBlogger's Sonia Simone talks about it as the long tail, which is everyone else in the world who is as weird as you are. It is the result of the fragmentation of our culture. Weird in your small town or high school isn't weird in the great big world.
Me? I like real estate, and independence, and alternate energy, and food security, and cooperative ventures, and business, and flying, and technology, and history, and politics. I have my own opinions on each of them, and they all relate to each other in a coherent and predictable way, but the result is that, for many people, I'm weird. I like remote, fly in real estate, and I want to own some with some other people in order to cooperatively raise beef in an off grid environment that doubles as a cowboy retreat that pays for itself.
But if that's weird today, imagine how weird it was in 1987. So weird it would almost have been impossible to accomplish. Today, however, I can market those ideas to as many people that share them as I can reach. I'm limited only by my ability to market the ideas and my ability to create a workable business model for them.
Why should you care? Simple. Now that the idea is out in the open you have a choice. Stick with mass or embrace weird. Weird lets you be you. Mass means you have to try to figure out everyone else. The two options are very different, and the choice between them will render very different results.
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