Uncountable Values
Caught a few moments of futurist Alvin Toffler talking to Newt Gingrich on my favorite TV channel, C-SPAN (which I love for its goofy and unhurried production style).
Alvin was discussing his concept of the "prosumer" — the consumer who also produces. He was saying that the productive activities of the "prosumer" don't get registered in the monetary economy, yet still add tangible value. For example if you go to Home Depot and buy a can of paint, that purchase gets counted towards the GDP. But your activity painting your own wall doesn't, though it would have done, had you hired a painter.
So there's a mass of real economic acitivity that never shows up in the numbers. Alvin estimates it at about equal to the currently recorded GDP. (Isn't this what feminists have been saying about housework since Simone de Beauvoir?)
We might expand on the "prosumer" to embrace the "marsumer". People do stuff today that a little while back was the exclusive purivew of professional marketers. That's an impact of technology, of course. As someone who remembers the nose-pinching smell of the school duplicator — the Kitty Hawk of desktop publishing — I can still be startled by how easy it's become to whip up a four-color brochure, launch a web site or even self-publish a full-length book.
From podcasts to teleconferences, from pre-printed postcards to mailable DVDs, if you have something to sell, promote or just pester people with, there is an ever-growing arsenal of gizmos at your disposal, at ever-declining costs.
For the entrepreneur this is good news and bad. The good news is that the global playing field keeps getting flatter, and the entry ticket keeps getting cheaper. The bad news is that technology can make a fool of anyone. Owning a Stradivarius doesn't make you a great violinist. And having a fistful of high-gloss tools doesn't make you a great marketer.
What does is what always did — an exceptional understanding of human nature.
The more you know about how people tick, the more effective your marketing will be. Of course there is real value in good communication media, just as there is in honing your strategic and tactical skills. Nevertheless, old-fashioned psychology — the streetwise variety — will always be the single most decisive factor in anyone's marketing success.
Alvin was discussing his concept of the "prosumer" — the consumer who also produces. He was saying that the productive activities of the "prosumer" don't get registered in the monetary economy, yet still add tangible value. For example if you go to Home Depot and buy a can of paint, that purchase gets counted towards the GDP. But your activity painting your own wall doesn't, though it would have done, had you hired a painter.
So there's a mass of real economic acitivity that never shows up in the numbers. Alvin estimates it at about equal to the currently recorded GDP. (Isn't this what feminists have been saying about housework since Simone de Beauvoir?)
We might expand on the "prosumer" to embrace the "marsumer". People do stuff today that a little while back was the exclusive purivew of professional marketers. That's an impact of technology, of course. As someone who remembers the nose-pinching smell of the school duplicator — the Kitty Hawk of desktop publishing — I can still be startled by how easy it's become to whip up a four-color brochure, launch a web site or even self-publish a full-length book.
From podcasts to teleconferences, from pre-printed postcards to mailable DVDs, if you have something to sell, promote or just pester people with, there is an ever-growing arsenal of gizmos at your disposal, at ever-declining costs.
For the entrepreneur this is good news and bad. The good news is that the global playing field keeps getting flatter, and the entry ticket keeps getting cheaper. The bad news is that technology can make a fool of anyone. Owning a Stradivarius doesn't make you a great violinist. And having a fistful of high-gloss tools doesn't make you a great marketer.
What does is what always did — an exceptional understanding of human nature.
The more you know about how people tick, the more effective your marketing will be. Of course there is real value in good communication media, just as there is in honing your strategic and tactical skills. Nevertheless, old-fashioned psychology — the streetwise variety — will always be the single most decisive factor in anyone's marketing success.
posted by Jon Ward at 6:36 PM
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