Not a day goes by that I’m not reminded that we live in an amazing age. We have instantaneous access to all the information we can possibly use, right on our desk tops. Even more amazing, we can get that same information on our pocket computers and even on our cell phones. 24 hour news, sports, and weather are as near as our belt or purse.
Where our grandparents, or even our parents, were amazed to see movies “talk”, or to see 8” black and white moving pictures sent through the air, our kids watch television in the back seat of the car and take it for granted. We have big screen televisions that fill up an entire wall.
But, the biggest change in television isn’t the device. It’s the way we use the medium itself. In the ‘50s, it was simple. If it’s Tuesday night, it’s “Uncle Miltie” time. Later on, most of us had three choices, ABC, CBS, or NBC. If you lived in a large enough market, there might have been one or two independent stations showing old movies and reruns.
Then came cable. First, cable was a means for people living outside of major markets to get a clear picture. Then, slowly, other channels were added and cable began to appear in the big cities. CNN came along and meant that we didn’t have to wait until 6:00 p.m. to see the news. We could actually watch breaking events as they happened.
When clouds appeared on the horizon, we could tune to The Weather Channel to find out what was happening. “Local on the 8’s” meant we could actually scan the local radar every ten minutes.
Fast forward to 2006. The big three networks are scrambling. Advertising revenues are down. We have hundreds of choices on cable and satellite. Not going to be home on Thursday evening? TIVO “CSI” and watch it at your leisure with the added advantage of being able to fast forward through the commercials. Or, download it to your i-Pod and watch it while you walk the dog. Broadcast TV’s historical business model is toast.
Worse than cable, at least as far as the networks are concerned, is the Internet. Now, we don’t even have to wait ten minutes for our local weather. Just pull up the latest doplar radar images from www.noaa.gov. Want news? Your computer doesn’t just deliver the news, it can filter it. You can tell it in advance what you’re interested in and just those headlines will be delivered right to your screen.
You control the direction and the speed of the “information superhighway.” Broadcasting is out. Narrowcasting is in. The days of some network executive sitting on the top floor of a skyscraper in New York deciding what information and entertainment you’re going to get, and when you’re going to get it are over. As media consumers, we decide.
So, what’s all this have to do with our business? Simple. Our customers have choices. When there was one major TV network, the choices of where to shop and what to shop for were much more limited too. Fewer stores carried fewer brands. The price of an item was pretty much a local affair. If only one store in town carried a particular brand, that store set the price.
Today, if I can choose what information and entertainment I want delivered into my home, and I can choose when I want to receive it, why would I settle for anything less in other areas of my life? If I need a new lawn mower, I want choices; lots of choices. I want it to do certain things, things that I choose, not things that someone else chooses for me.
I also want a certain level of service. Maybe I can change a spark plug once in a while. Maybe I can’t. But, I want to decide. Don’t tell me that service that I don’t want or need is “included” in the price when I know darned good and well that I’m paying for it.
There will always be a percentage of the population that only wants the lowest price. So, there will always be mass merchants. But, for the more discriminating person, mass merchants are no more valuable than mass communication. The TIVO customer, the customer who gets his news from Yahoo, and not from NBC or the New York Times, wants to decide for himself. He’s already done his homework on the net and knows what a 20” self-propelled lawn mower with electric start and oversized wheels should cost. He knows what he wants and he knows what he wants to pay for it. He also knows the services he wants bundled with it and how much those services should add to his cost.
If you have what he wants, at the price he wants to pay, you have a chance at his business. If you don’t, you don’t. It’s as simple as that.
This guy is in love with information. If you can tell him something he doesn't know, and if he doesn't smell a sales pitch, you'll be his new best friend. Show him how to take better care of his lawn, or how to make his mower last longer, and he'll tell his current friends about his new friend. How important is that? Remember, this guy doesn't watch commercials. Neither do his friends. Word-of-mouth may be the only way to get your message to them.
Get his permission to put him on your email newsletter mailing list, and you'll have an excellent chance of selling him an edger, and a trimmer, and a snowblower, as long as your newsletter contains information that he considers valuable. Again, if he values your newsletter, he'll make sure his friends get on your mailing list too. You become a valuable source of information. That's really narrowcasting. And you control the content.
For years we’ve all heard that the independent business is in trouble. The big box stores are going to get it all. Nonsense! The so-called “mass market” isn’t nearly as “mass” as some would have us believe. Buyers have experienced the freedom to choose their information and entertainment, they want that same freedom in other areas too. One size fits all doesn’t anymore. It’s up to us to give them the choices that they demand.
Here’s a question for you. What are you doing to give your customer the same kind of choices that she gets in her information and entertainment? How are you catering to the new, non-mass market?
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