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Gonzo marketing isn't really about marketing at all. At least not the kind that mutters amnesiacally about Product, Place, Price and Promotion. Since the Web came along, place no longer matters, the right price is often zero, and the first rule of promotion is to never talk about the product. Maybe instead, marketing is about persuading people to listen, just as the goal of fiction is to get readers to willingly suspend disbelief. Hmmm, curious thought. But if that's the point, then "marketing" is probably the wrong word for the program. Which is why I call it gonzo marketing -- a boring, not very friendly concept turned inside out and stuffed full of yarns and fables, myths and sagas, outright fictions: stories. To put this in perspective, imagine Esther's desk with a sign that says "The curve starts here." That's her role in the world, and the implied meaning behind the title of Release 1.0. Running an all-RageBoy issue was a brave but highly calculated decision on her part — and it was made before the book's release in January. Considering the success of the book so far (it's now on Business Week, The New York Times, Amazon.com and Borders.com bestseller lists), she was right again. By the way, Esther and editor Kevin Werbach expose very few issues of Release 1.0 on the Web, and we thank them for doing our readers this kind favor.
To buy or, well, to buy. That's the question. We learn from Adweek that the nascent satellite radio business will raise the level of choice for customers by offering a buy button: TX Technologies Inc. to equip satellite radios with a "buy" button allowing consumers to order advertised items instantaneously. The button also enables customers to purchase the CD of a song playing on the radio with one click — the listener need not even know the name of the artist. A credit card number is not required; purchases are added to customers’ radio bills each month, and the items are delivered to their homes. Sirius and XM are each launching satellite radio service with 100 static-free channels of music, news, sports and talk for a $9.95 monthly subscription. An XM spokeswoman said her company will offer a similar e-shopping component. Now there's shopping for ya: any choice as long as it's this here.
Take this clue... One reader writes: After the sufferiing through course after course of "beige pudding" media, I'm dazzled by the possibilities that Cluetrain will engender. "Bought and sold" may become an artifice yet. Anyone connected with media, PR, marketing and related ilk can feel free to find that voice and start conversing. The Cluetrain sticks a firecracker up the ass of post-McCluhan intellectualized claptrap and signals a new era. If you aren't conversing, you are dead. Another writer adds... We live in a world where
Wonderful to see someone trying to think again about where we are and where we need to be. — Doc Searls
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