Don Thorson - Marketing 2.0

YouTube, Maslow and Dancing Monkeys

Since it's purchase, we've been considering the value of YouTube. Why is it so popular? Why is it worth so much?  To get a handle on this, it can be useful to map a successful product to Maslow's heirarcy. Powerful brands almost always relate to the pyramid somehow. It's most often about image , reproduction or belonging (levels 3 and 4) Consider eHarmony and Match.com. The more levels a product resonates, the stronger it's brand potential and often the larger the community around it.

(Maslow's pyramid was later amended to add two new levels at the top; "Aesthetic " and " Know and Understand")

This "brand value assessment tool" seems to work if you consider that YouTube supports all of the top five levels - everything from friendship to creativity.

While trying to understand the YouTube phenomena,  I came across this video which might speak to the core motivations of the YouTube contributor (motivation beyond the fact that it's just fun, that is - YouTube is mostly just about entertainment, I think).

I shared this video with my colleague Frederik Hermann who posted some interesting comments here and  then sent me  "Dance Monkeys Dance",  which is another and much more visually interesting, interpretation of Maslow, (it helps put it all in perspective and puts a smile on your face at the same time).

5 Billion Text Messages / Month

I had just finished writing the "Fun  with Numbers" post below, when I came across this from friend Pat Phelan's  Roam4Free blog:

"US mobile operator Verizon Wireless has announced that its customers sent and received over five billion SMS messages in September, a record for both the company and the US mobile industry. This is equal to growth of 150 percent or three billion messages per month from September 2005."

Stunning.

Fun With Numbers

Today Alec Saunders  points us to Kevin Coughlin , where Kevin talks about the "cost of distraction". Listen to these numbers:

- 22.3 Trillion - the number of emails to be sent this year.

- 3 billion  - the number of instant messages to be relayed by AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft.

- 81.2 Million- the number of text messages to be sent to US cell phones.

Other numbers, along the same lines:

- 2.5 Billion - the number of mobile phone subscribers.

- 850 Million - the number of  mobile handsets sold/year

- $ 2.87 Trillion - Worldwide telecom revenue

Kevin's reports that Basex, a consulting firm, has quantified the cost of these "distractions".  Evidently it costs us $588 billion to be interrupted that much. Hummmm. I guess I don't get it. Yes, I get junk mail and yes, down time is pleasurable and wonderful and critical - but staying in immediate contact with friends, family and colleagues is the thread that brings context to it all. We are a social animal. (Someone once told me that the only reason we invented work was so we'd have an excuse to get together).  We are tribal by nature. We run in packs. To me, these numbers are a reflection of the coming together of a global pack, a large unified earth-sized tribe.

And now that I'm working globally- staying in contact with the greater team is so immediate and fluid - we couldn't do it without the virtual mind-meld. Distractions? I know what you mean, but it's not resonating with me now. I'm loving this stuff.

Identity 2.0

Today I had the pleasure of meeting with Dick Hardt  Founder and CEO of Sxip Identity . As many of you 2.0 aficionados already know, Dick is a thought leader in this new and soon to become very important space. Greatly simplified, Dicks company is tackling the problem of figuring out the good guys from the bad in the world of  email an web communities. Think of it as a credit rating for non-financial considerations. Dick introduces the topic in one of the better  presentations I've ever seen. Check it out.

We are just beginning to think about Identity 2.0. Many companies are now providing the tools and / or environments for people to be someone other than who they really are.  This might be done for privacy reasons or entertainment reasons but it might also be done with malicious intent.  If you are one of the companies creating anonymous meeting places - and you want those places to be safe and welcoming, you are going to need screening, confirmation, validation and reporting mechanisms. Dick's company is looking at how to do just that.

 

Whole Product

Reading Guy's blog today, he lays down some simple rules around Geek Marketing 101.  It always come down to a few basic rules. They're basically the same rules we were taught in our first marketing class. The rules are simple, sticking to them is what's hard. Technology companies love to solve problems that don't exist - "because they can". Companies are popping up all over the landscape (I talk to them every day) that have interesting products but they will never amount to much.

It's because making the product might be a 5% slice of the success pie.

" Whole Product" diagrams can be  useful tools to get customers  to understand  that you need to have a "complete solution" if you want it to take off. Early adopters will suffer through complicated instructions, difficult downloads and installations, no customer support -  but mainstream users need to be spoon fed.

The Rules:

1. Does It Solve A Problem - Have you solved a problem the customer recognizes. Have you identified the customers pain. If not, you have a vitamin and not a pain killer. You want a pain killer.

2. Is It Easy To Understand - Seriously, 5 words should do it. 2 words is better. Do the "mom test" If mom doesn't understand it, change something until she does.

3. Is It Easy To Get - Have you removed the barriers between you and having your customers use your product. In a 2.0 world we are talking free trials, no cost, fast, easy. Get it in their hands or nothing good will happen.

4. Is It Easy To Use - At Apple our rule was, "1 minute after they start to use it , they feel like calling their friends".  ......" You will not believe what I just got".

5. Is It Easy To Share - In this ultra-connected world, your customers are your marketing department. If your customers are not marketing your product, you have problems. We used to call it evangelism, now we call it sharing. Your product needs to have "embedded viral components" - active mechanisms  built directly into the application that assume your customers will want to tell everyone they know. Make it easy for them to do so.