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Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Marketing In the Post Narcissism Era
By: Jaffer Ali
"The insidious ways that egoism, individualism, and
narcissism destroy the conditions that make shared
life possible."
--Alexis de Tocqueville
Since the dawn of Man, there has always been tension
between individualism and our social nature. The tension
is one of the forces that move our species along. We
seemingly move from one end of the dichotomy to the
other with increasingly breakneck speed.
Communism as a social, collective answer to brutal
industrialization and the Nazi "ubermensch" ideal soon
gave way to a totalitarian nightmare articulated by
Orwell in 1984 and Animal Farm. The individualism of Ayn
Rand became the antithesis of social responsibility and
built an anthem to selfishness and contempt for the
average man as the hero from The Fountainhead demonstrates
in his description of Robin Hood:
"He was the man who robbed the rich and gave to the poor.
I'm the man who robs the poor and gives to the rich, or
to be more exact, the man who robs the thieving poor and
gives back to the productive rich."
If you are asking what does this have to do with online
marketing then read on.
We have experienced more than 50 years of catering to ever
more individualistic impulses. That does not sound too bad
on the surface. Until we end up with Ayn Rand's ode to
narcissism. Our culture has become hooked on a false sense
of individuality. Personalized license plates and our
ability to customize our online news feeds give false
impressions of individualism.
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Twenty-eight different toothpastes in the supermarket aisle
do nothing to foster real individuality. Exploding choices
abound to feed the illusion of individuality. And in the
midst of the tyranny of superficial choices, marketing
mythologies have surfaced to feed the beast. Peppers and
Rodgers wrote the marketing manifesto "One to One Market-
ing" which basically is a nonsensical premise that has
found acolytes worldwide.
Marketing small suggests an end to the mass market. And
what happens is we become small. But the endless dialectic
is at work. We will see a return to a mass market because
those that pay for our livelihoods; big brands, need it.
Many brand managers have been temporarily seduced by the
"one-to-one" mantra, no doubt aided by their monumentally
flawed MBA training.
But there is an economic imperative that crushes what
passes for conventional wisdom. Necessity dictates a
return to the mass market. Necessary for whom? The big
brands, that's who.
They need to sell tonnage and flirting with marketing to
individual impulses only proved a folly. Scale and reach
are necessary for them to accomplish their economic goals.
In the next installment, we will chart the course how we
can get back to a mass market and a healthier ecosystem.
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Jaffer Ali is the CEO of Vidsense and always welcomes
comments. You can reach him via email at J (dot) Ali @
Vidsense (dotcom) or give him a call at 708-478-4500.
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Questions? Comments? Email me at: quote (at) Quotes2u.com
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