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April 02, 2005
Our shortcut culture
What do Raging Cow, which paid bloggers to write about its product...
Marqui, which currently pays bloggers to mention its software...
And Google-gaming involving Wordpress have in common?
They're examples of shortcut marketing.
Shortcut marketing is unappetizing, shortsighted and destined to fail by the weight of its disregard for authenticity. Claims of "transparency" do not let marketers off the hook, inasmuch as Jose Canseco should be exonerated for taking steroids just because he admits it.
The "I'm just trying to make a buck" excuse doesn't work anymore. The fast-money, shortcut culture is being more widely exposed now than the mainstream media could ever imagine 10 years ago.
Other blogs that reference Our shortcut culture:
» Shortcut Marketing. But What About the Feedback? from pc4media
A little while ago Seth Godin riffed about how marketers are always looking for a shortcut which spawned quite a bit of conversation. Ben McConnell seemingly independently is riffing on the same subject. He lumps the wordpress debacle, raging cow [Read More]
» Our Shortcut Culture from Chris Busch
From Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba at [Read More]
And it's getting harder and harder to imitate another companies' success because through the Internet the business world is becoming very transparent and no one wants a fake. Innovation is not imitation.
Another shortcut: fake blogs. The Captain Morgan blog (http://www.thecaptainsblog.com/home.php) and The Geico Gecko blog (http://www.geico.com/blog/) are two great examples.
If you want to have a conversation, have a conversation with customers don't pander to them.
And shame on Geico for claiming they want 100% customer satisfaction (they have 97%) and then creating a Gecko blog. Better to have your real CEO blog, just like GM.
My longer take here: http://www.mostlymuppet.com/archives/2005/03/29/geico-blogging/
