Controlled Capitalism is Changing
The problem with one-way communication and some of the old way of doing marketing is that for years, in an effort to solidify and meet our revenue forecasts, we have trained human beings to be the type of consumer that doesn’t think for themselves. They’ve been rolling with the consumer herd so that large corporations with nebulous names can spoon feed them what they need to like, and pay for, next week, next month, next year.
In this awesome age of information that we are swimming in, people are now learning from a young age to think for themselves when it comes to consumables and how they have the power to choose the next trend and influence others, even people they don’t know (customer reviews for example). This power has also made them hungrier and less patient when it comes to the ROI attached to something they read, eat, drink, smell, etc….people expect a return now when you engage them and frankly, I don’t blame them.
Think about how much time and money is wasted marketing something in a way that creates no return or meaning for the customer. Think about the thousands of banner ads that were designed by pricey agencies that were ignored and never clicked, the print ads were never read or that never drove one direct sale or word of mouth reference. It’s mind blowing to think about all the money spent on that with nothing to show for it.
Legos Are Deep, Man
A nice write up entitled, “Finding Purpose in Labor (and Labor Economics)” was posted by Daniel R. Hawes where he posts some thoughts and opinions regarding a study that was done and documented called “Man’s search for meaning: The case of Legos”
Here’s a quote from Daniel’s write up about the experiment talking about it’s premise:
“Meaning, or purpose, in the task was manipulated by what the MIT and University of Chicago experimenters did with Lego toys after a participant had put them together. For one group of participants – the group with the meaningful task – the constructed Lego toys were piled up on a table for the participant to see, and new Lego pieces were provided to build further toys. For the meaning-deprived group, each constructed toy was immediately disassembled (for the participant to see), and the parts given back to be reused for subsequent building efforts.
Maybe not surprisingly to you, but possibly surprising for economic theorists, the average amount of toys each person was willing to build significantly differed between the two groups.”
……and here is a quote from the researchers doing the study:
“Despite the fact that the physical task requirements and the wage schedule were identical in the two conditions, the subjects in the Meaningful condition built significantly more [Lego toys] than those in the Sisyphus condition. In the Meaningful condition, subjects built an average of 10.6 [Lego toys] and received an average of $14.40, while those in the Sisyphus condition built an average of 7.2 [Lego toys] and earned an average of $11.52.”
After reading I was reminded of one of the most simple rules to good marketing, and more importantly in this day and age, surefire tactics for upping the statistical odds of you getting a return for your social media campaign initiatives: Meaning & Purpose.
As a Social Media Marketer, It’s Already In Your Bag of Tricks
Something as simple as Legos remind us of one of the low-hanging fruits of social media. The study above reminds us of something very simple and fundamental.To me, the above data states something that should be obvious to any social marketer.
When you run a campaign, is there a meaning or purpose for the user when they arrive at your campaign landing page, click on your shortened URL, follow you on Twitter, etc.? Do they feel that when you engage them does your promotional delivery wreak more of the ‘take’ than the more important scent of ‘give’?
If you build your social media efforts on a foundation of meaning for your audience, the revenue and brand awareness will come naturally. Even something as simple as Legos prove it.
Onward.
Brian’s recent blog post: “
Google Has The Holy Grail
Controlling the Present, Generating The Future
They have access to a level of human nature and core behavioral patterns that not many see or think to try and notice. They get to also see that aspect of human nature at a depth that researchers, behavioral scientists, and marketers would sell their first born on eBay for, or at the very least drool heavily over. I’ve always wondered if this search data is protected somewhere similar to Dr. Evil’s volcano lair, masking itself as a search company, all the while it’s collecting and subversively controlling business relationships, retail purchases and trends.
The brilliance in what Google is doing, whether it was intentional or not back when they started ramping up, is that no one at Google had to go out door to door, getting other human beings to volunteer for a “study” for their “marketing purposes.” The Google machine, because of the fact that people have made them a necessity in their lives for acquiring information, has human beings populating their databases voluntarily via billions upon billions of web requests every day. Amazing.
Google has the power to decide what is popular next. People that have access to that data could predict the next trends in B2B, B2C, and C2C (Consumer to Consumer: The current marketing territory where most companies feel like they’re herding cats).
Here are some related articles of interest on this topic:
Gizmodo: Google and the Deadly Power of Data
Channel.Hexus: Google battles Big Brother image
Google As Big Brother