NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> The end of Mass Market Branding??
ONLINE-ADS>> The end of Mass Market Branding??
Leo Sheiner (leo_at_netcomuk.co.uk)
Thu, 02 Jul 1998 11:10:07 +0100
I have been watching the continuing thread about Mass
Medium, Targeting? with great interest and was content
enough to leave it to others to wage battle <g> after my
own modest contribution. But a note came through
cyberspace from Reuters which set me thinking, maybe we
are all arguing about a situation that is destined to
become obsolete anyway. Maybe Mass market Branding itself
is set to die a death? What price then Mass market
targeting? No.. No.., I hear you say, branding is the
core, the very foundation upon whch commerce is built. How
could it end? What could replace it? Well, community
could, fragmentation likely will. This is a train of
thought that could raise some hackles <g>. First the
reasons why I think Branding could eventually come under
threat from the Internet. Below is the clip from Reuters:
"Economic booms and busts could become more frequent as
shopping on the Internet takes off, a study published
Wednesday shows. Jeffrey Kephart and colleagues at IBM's
Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York said that as
consumers buy more goods and services online, they
increasingly turn to programs known as software agents to
search for the best prices. "These agents tend to
exaggerate the worst market swings and create disastrous
price wars," the New Scientist, reviewing the research,
said. Kephart said software agents are not subject to the
restraints that normally rein in economic activity."
I started saying three years ago that the Internet was
perfectly suited to the pile them high and sell it cheap
strategy. Well yes but if what you have is a networked
database that can be queried by agents and if distance is
no object what have you left to compete with other than
price?... Service, information, reliability, community?
Yes, but in the longer term, will all that stand under the
onslaught of price? I have also before now suggested that
the small entrepreneur will secure his livelihood on the
web by finding niche markets in order to differentiate
himself.
But what if the largest of corporations find their margins
under constant threat by ever-more cut-throat competition?
What differentiates one such corporation from another if
they are all selling the same "branded" goods. In the
physical world differently priced goods can survive
because of physical location, convenience, image etc. In
other words, it is a market with built-in inefficiencies.
But in Cyberspace the market could become a perfect one?
So what is the logical conclusion? The middle man will be
squeezed. Quite probably many manufacturers will
increasingly sell direct to their customers. Other vendors
may have to own-brand to eliminate obvious competition? Or
they will have to negotiate the exclusive of different
models with a unique combinations of add-ons or features.
And if everyone increasingly has to differentiate their
product offering so as to avoid comparison, how can you
have mass marketing for a fragmented and deliberately
obscured offering?
Ergo, I forsee the end of mass market branding as we now
know it. I think we will see ever more fragmented niche
market branding. And on the web, the only cost-effective
way to do that in my view is to build communities.
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mailto:leo_at_global-m.com Telephone +44181 346 0770 Leo
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