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I’ve been working on a marketing article for several months, but haven’t really had as full a perspective as I’d like to have on the “picture”. It’s grand theme is measurement. I want to describe how a division has taken place in the universe of marketing, into the category of tactics that give effects we can measure and those that yield results we cannot. Online is in the former category. Most traditional marketing is in the latter. I would also describe how it has been (for most of the history of the marketing praxis) a big part of what marketing “does” to try to establish correlations between specific marketing actions and specific sales reactions. I would then go on to describe how the ability to precisely determine ROI (a given with online advertising) has commenced a massive flux in the way marketing budgets are being divided, in favor of measurable online. At the same time, marketing departments and ad agencies are coming under the leadership of “online marketers”… by that I mean executives who came up through the ranks buying and selling clicks. It is likely a grave disrespect to many talented and well-rounded marketing professionals to say that people who understand “traditional” marketing (PR, print, and all that’s not online) are in decline. But I think it’s generally true. Then again, perhaps all I am doing is observing an evolution, and there’s no reason to lament the disappearance of methods that don’t work anymore… or at least that do not work well enough to warrant investing in people who have those skills…

Basically, this is what happened: I bought The Long Tail at the Union Square Borders tonight. I’d seen references here and there, while browsing on the Web. But I wasn’t really sure what it was. I had only a vague sense it might be important or interesting or relevant.

As a rule, I try to pay attention to the messages Google puts into the world. I would say that I do not rely on serendipity to bring those messages to my attention. That’s why it came as such a surprise to me to stumble upon a book on a store shelf in San Francisco bearing this rather remarkable quote from Google CEO, Eric Schmidt:

“(Chris) Anderson’s insights influence Google’s strategic thinking in a profound way.
READ THIS BRILLIANT AND TIMELY BOOK.”

Those are Eric’s caps, not mine, by the way.

Given so emphatic a recommendation from so high a place at Google, how could I have missed it? Why did this message elude me?

Admittedly, my near-oblivion to The Long Tail for so long may be all my own fault. Perhaps I’ve been distracted. Perhaps I’ve been remiss. But whether or not the failure is mine, and regardless whether it is a failure of attention or of diligence, the truth remains that I bought the book today.

The details of how a thing was sold may interest the person whose job it is to sell that thing.

Traditional Marketing Principles would allocate most of that interest (as budget and strategic focus) to the largest type of customer, as a group.

In practice, it is difficult for Marketing to give much attention to anything beyond the top few types of customer.

That could certainly explain what happened in my case, why I had heard so little about The Long Tail before encountering a purchase opportunity. Maybe the writing on the wall was not for me, and what little I knew about The Long Tail before tonight was an unintended accident. But, then again, a purchase was made. That’s always a win for the seller. Right? I’m sure somebody over at The Long Tail Inc. is ready, willing and able to take credit for me. Especially if there is a plausible chain of events to connect effort and effect.

As for the buyer’s satisfaction, in this case, we shall have to see.

I have placed The Long Tail in optimal position, on a small table beside the toilet in my bathroom, and will consume it shortly.

Instead of writing a review of the book (of which there are surely many on the Web already), I thought it might be more interesting to give an account, instead, of my purchase, and to offer my perspective as a consumer for the benefit of marketers. There is also a message here for those of you who buy traffic, yet doubt you can sell without clicks.

I would have to call this an impulse purchase. (more…)

There are moments when I wish I still had the discipline and restraint to make a point the old fashioned way, with academic rigor and the diligence of proof. But lately, I just say fuck it a lot, and assert my theories without any support. Here’s an example: Yahoo is doing some cool shit and it seems to me that Google has worked hard to make themselves look like the Beatles, so it behooves Yahoo to be more like the Rolling Stones. That’s it.