Monday, April 13, 2009

Web 2.0 = Marketing 2.0??

For some reason, lately the need to classify things has been bouncing around in my head. Not trying to classify my own stuff in my house, but why its done. Of course, general classification is obviously and correctly used to differentiate things that for the most part are blatantly different, with small variation.

Animal. Vegetable. Mineral. Mammal. Fish. Arachnid. Whatever, they're for the most part useful.

But what is Web 2.0? What is new marketing? For that matter, what compromised Web 1.0? What exactly is included within traditional marketing? Who's traditions? Mine? Yours? Nostradamus? Bill Clinton? Dave Chappelle? Where do you draw the lines...is it really necessary to draw them?

No.

To concentrate on marketing for a moment...how do you know when to draw the line? Was it when the first spam email went out? Was it when the first banner ad was clicked on? Was it the first television commercial? Was it the first magazine ad? The line is useless....marketing is marketing is marketing. The music industry is full of the same bullshit...everything has to have a label to make it digestable to the latest and the greatest of whatever. Fuck it. Music is music is music. Its all music....leave it at the general classifications that you see in a record store. I don't need new this, or post that, or cross genre classifications. Its music. Get over it. Its marketing. ITS ALL THE SAME! The method of delivery is the difference. Since day one, marketing has been about getting your product or service in front of as many of the right people as often and as cheaply as possible without pissing them off. Thats what it is, thats what its been, and thats what it will always be.

Same with the internet. If you really want to get technical, Web 1.0 was the millitary defense network before any of the concepts of the internet beyond BBSs was even a thought in Al Gore's mind. Which would mean by classification of evolutionary ideas, we'd be on like Web 9.2 at this point. So why aren't we? Because the classification doesn't mean a damn thing. Its subjective, its made up to pigeonhole stuff, much like what I spoke about above. Its the internet. It has a wide variety of uses and has gone through a wide variety of generations...but its still the internet. No need to call it anything else...no more classifications needed. Just leave it alone.

What are your favorite useless classifications?

Thanks for reading...

2 comments:

  1. Interesting post. I made a 2 minute animation about and how marketing 2.0 is distinguished from traditional marketing ... it might be of interest.

    http://www.rolandsmart.com/2009/03/marketing-20-movie/

    Best.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the reply, Roland...I will definitely check out your video and your site. :)

    ReplyDelete