Is “Marketing” by “Wants” dead?

> The point about the "frozen
> pizzas" is not that they aren't selling
> it's that there are tons of companies
> selling them, which makes it an extremely
> difficult market to break into. As are most
> markets... again overcapacity and
> oversaturation have created a bonanza for
> the consumer and a huge road-block for new
> competitors in that market.

I still don't buy his argument. It reeks of, "Oh, how things were so much better in the good 'ol days."

There is a larger market today, with greater demand for frozen pizza than ever before. This is why there are more companies selling frozen pizza. Plus, technology and advertisers to reach consumers more effectively (cheaper) than ever before.

> That is exactly why people have less time.
> You and I may agree that searching for
> packing popcorn shaped like Elvis maybe a
> complete waste of time but to the people
> doing it, it is extremely important. You as
> a marketer now have the daunting task of
> trying to get this consumer to stop looking
> for Elvis long enough to pay attention to
> your marketing message.

People don't really have less time. They only THINK they have less time. The average work week has gone from 14 hour days to 8 hour days in the last 100 years, while the amount of disposable income and size of the market has increased.

> You see that is exactly why the brick &
> mortar and catalog companies are doing so
> well on the net--they bring years of
> relationship building to the table. People
> deal with Dell, LL Bean, Lands End, Blair
> and the others because they've dealt with
> them off-line. It was the companies that had
> no prior relationship that got killed.

I disagree. This a myth that has been perpetuated by the media. The truth is: Companies with poor business models got creamed. In contrast, companies with no prior relationship have prospered. Small, local businesses no have access to consumers in other markets. For example, my father's small sign shop in S. Calif. now does 30% more business than before the internet, to business on the other side of the country. They had no prior relationship with him, and because of geographic distance, would have NEVER known of him.

> Amazon paid and continues to pay a steep
> price for doing things the "new"
> way and trying to forge a relationship where
> none existed before the Internet.

No, Amazon pays a huge price for trying to train make the consumer do things in a new way. And because their business model has very low profit margins.

> I'm not familiar with this so I can't
> comment.

> Maybe it is.

I don't know... I've just never been a big fan of Godin. I've wanted to be... as he has a knack for picking topics that are very interesting to me... but he just neveer seems to deliver on the follow through.

I signed up for his e-zine when his "Permission Marketing" book came out, and to date I think I've only received on e-mail from him. This could be a fluke... have you received regular e-mails from him?

- Adam.




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