Two Really Good New Books

I am reading Seth Godin's new book "We all are Weird" were he talks about the decline of normal and the rise of the new weird. The old normal was based on consumers wanting to be like their neighbors and conform to what society said they should be. Industry and commerce were built on producing few products with limited options that appealed to the widest audience. During this period, mass media, especially TV, allowed advertisers to reach a large audience at the lowest costs per thousand (CPM). Advertisers were reaching the great middle and selling products with limited differentiation. In the new normal consumers are free to explore whatever they want in whatever niche appeals to them. Today, consumers have choices not only in the products they choose, but also where they spend their media time. With the rise of the internet and the proliferation of media outlets, a person can find the content they want when they want it no matter how strange or esoteric. You can find a blog or site that focuses on whatever passion you happen to have. Speaking about me, I love new media, surfing and Dr. Who and there are plenty of sites for me to stay current on all those activities. For new media, Mashable, Gizmodo, Venture Beat and All things Digital are just a few of the sites I visit regularly. For surfing, Surfline and Magic Seaweed are two of my favorite sites. Dr. Who is easy, BBC and YouTube. I also love watching old episodes on Netflix. For that matter, my Twitter newsfeed pushes stories to me, about surfing, social, Dr Who, whatever I want. For an advertiser it is all about finding and targeting smaller and smaller groups of consumers. However, these smaller groups of people represent consumers that are passionate about their activities and hopefully passionate about your brand. What an advertiser may miss out in terms of the size of an audience they make up with passion and commitment of that audience. However Seth Godin says an advertiser needs to embrace this new normal and embrace these new groups not with a token commitment, but a total commitment to make products and marketing communications that reflect what this group actually wants. The other book I am reading is “On-Demand Brand” by Rick Mathieson who has the premise that consumers no longer want to wait, instead they want what they want now. He uses Burger King’s famous phrase, “Have it your way” as evidence of a change in consumer behavior. From a macro perspective, Rick is correct. Media choices have evolved from having to wait to watch a weekly TV show to first VCRs and DVRs which allowed you to time shift your favorite show to iTunes, Hulu or Netflix where you can instantly watch whatever you want when you want and on the device you want, TV, tablet, or mobile phone. I love the example of music. In the old days, you listed to a top 40 radio station and if you heard a song you liked, you had to wait until they played the song again. With the rise of online radio stations such as Pandora. Slacker, and Jango you now can listen to groups that are similar to what you wanted, but not your exact song. You can also game these stations, but that’s another story. Now with the rise of Spotify, Rhapsody and others you can listen to whatever song you want when you want and on the device you want and all for about $10 a month. Obviously, iTunes also gives you music on demand but makes you buy the music whereas with Spotify, it’s more like renting than buying. When you combine these two ideas Marketers now must appeal to these smaller groups and must appeal to them with content they want when they want it. We live in an exciting time.