Since my blog is my public brain (bigger hard drive, more RAM, better search and retrieve) I’m posting this:
All Markets Are Up For Grabs.
Difference Not Differentiation.
Don’t Disappoint.
Make Your Marketing Sociable.
Interaction Requires Iteration.
See The Wood For The Trees.
Relate, Renew and Reinvent.
Don’t Forget To Sell.
Le ROI Est Mort.
Marketing Is Not A Department.
Get the full story at the (wonderfully-named) Make Marketing History blog.
[tags] marketing, marketing2.0, john koetsier [/tags]
With so much social media and interaction on the web, it’s now easier than ever to start a company. On the other hand, it’s also easier than ever to *destroy* a company, which is pretty scary.
Anyway, that list seems pretty spot on. All markets are indeed up for grabs – I don’t care if you have an 800lb gorilla in the way, if you’re superior, you’re going to win. There are many obvious examples, and some not so obvious examples;
Google … Yes, they were a small startup at one time. Their technology was much better than the competition, and their UI was simpler. They de-throned the multiple 800lb gorillas that were in this sector (Yahoo, Ask, etc).
Craigslist … While it hasn’t really “de-throned” eBay, it does generate alot of revenue and it is gaining fast market share. If they would clean up their UI, I’m sure eBay would have a real competitor (or successor) in view.
My uncle, 60 years old, said something that struck me kind of funny the other day (he’s not a tech guy by any means). He was talking about how “stale” Microsoft has become, and how nobody has managed to step up and out-innovate them since the 1970’s – that’s a pretty long time. He went on to say that nobody has really innovated the O/S in any way, shape, or form. He concluded that an O/S should be simple by minimizing clicks and not testing a user’s dexterity – an O/S should be a personal choice, much like the color of your mousepad.
Those views interested me because they are from an innocent mind that isn’t trained into thinking “Microsoft is the one and only choice”. Those views, should be true of everyone. Don’t think that an 800lb or 1600lb gorilla can never be removed. Microsoft, and many other companies, can’t dominate a single market forever.
Robert, speaking as one who doesn’t currently have a big existing monopoly company, I’m really quite glad that it’s easier to destroy companies than ever before. Realistically, however, I’m sure it’s still quite hard – alas. 😉
Well, “destruction” would be more fitting for smaller startups. Bigger corporations most likely suffer a non-devastating loss of customers (i.e. Google’s lack of people using “Google Apps for your Domain” because of the light shed on the legal agreement).
Even so, “destroy” probably isn’t the right term… But one bad PR move by a small company can definitely make the founders feel like they are being destroyed.