Communication Revolutions

Generational Shift

I have been reading four books that when taken together lay out an interesting case for the future of marketing.  The Books:

• Generations- The History of America's Future
• Bowling Alone - The Collapse and Revival of American Community
• Blink- The Power of Thinking without Thinking
• Blog-Understanding the Information Revolution That's Changing Your World

Generations, chronicles every generation of American's from 1584-2069 and is one of the most powerful marketing resources that I have come across.  In the book, the authors predict a society that is increasingly concerned with the "disintegrating foundations of their social, outer world.... people came to share a disquieting sense of fragmenting community, of eroding public purpose, of institutions that no longer function, of mounting financial and environmental liabilities that must someday fall due"  Amazingly , the book published in 1991, discusses the probable mood of the US should a terrorist unleash a nuclear weapon in New York City in the first decade of the new millennium. 

Bowling Alone tracks the changing behavior of Americans and shows how "we have become increasingly disconnected from one another and how social structures-whether they are the PTA, church or political parties have disintegrated.

Blog Chronicles the history of information distribution and the new technology that enables communications to bypass traditional media infrastructure that has become increasingly less credible.

Blink - talks about the power of the human brain to unconsciously filter and absorb information.

So, we live in a world where the average American is exposed to 3,000 ad messages every day.  After a decade of ENRON's - corporate scandals, NYSE scandals, investment fund scandals, media scandals, political scandals- Americans don't much trust the institutions that were built in past generations to address the challenges of today's generation.

The fabric of the traditional community has ebbed to a relative low- witness the decline in membership in bowling leagues, ski clubs, social clubs and church participation over the past 40 years.

Generations, Bowling Alone and Blog all seem to indicate that the pendulum is swinging in a new direction and the effects will revolutionize media, politics and government and corporate culture and will revitalize communities, congregations and social networks. 

The beginnings of this shift are now becoming apparent. 

Blog- The next generation gets it

I just finished Hugh Hewitt's new book Blog -Understanding the Information Reformation that's changing your world.

As you would expect one of the blogosphere's foremost  evangelists has made a powerful case for the use of blogs.

One of my favorite quotes"  Since the consumers of news and information are hungry for reliable, unfiltered information on which to base decisions, they are open to new, trustworthy sources of that information" 

Hugh does such a good job promoting blogs that my two year old is already on the bandwagon. 

Blog ROI

With all of the recent buzz about blogs, more and more businesses are considering blogs as an element in their Marcom mix.  A big challenge that marketing execs face is measurement.  How can they quantify the return on their blog investment and justify the investment of time and money. 

The challenge is that blogs are equal parts advertising, public relations, and promotions and marketers use different metrics to buy and track the effectiveness of their advertising, pr and promotional campaigns. 

There is a great article on Click Z on measuring blog marketing read part one and part two. (thanks to Corporate Blogging Blog for the pointer)

In Malcom Gladwell's new book Blink, The power of Thinking  Without Thinking, he talks about the power of instinct and the adaptive unconscious.  Every corporate marketing executive that I have talked to very quickly comes to the realization that blogs are a very powerful marketing medium and could benefit their business.  The struggle comes when they try to justify their investment in time, money and exposure.  Marketers and media buyers still want an integrated measurement matrix that will track the qualitative and the quantitative impact of blog marketing to help them rationalize and justify their investment.  Unfortunately the very power of blogs as advertising and pr tools make it much more complicated to measure.  The tools are there but they will never be as simple as CPM, CPC, or CPP.

Thanks Hugh

Many Thanks to Hugh Hewitt for the great mention on his blog and his show this afternoon.  I must return the favor and plug his new book BLOG-which will available on January 14th. 

Generational Marketing

I just re-explored my old copy of Generations: The History of America's Future by Neil Howe and William Strauss. This is probably the most valuable marketing book that I have ever read.  For the past eight or so years I have reviewed the book on a regular basis and it is now full of bookmarks, highlights and sticky notes.  To get an idea of the crystal ball that the authors take you through, in  Chapter 13 - Completing The Millennial Cycle, Strauss and Howe talk about the possibility of an anti-American terrorist group planting a nuclear bomb in New York City.  The book was published in 1991.  The authors take you through every generation of Americans from 1584 to 2069 and chronical the re-occuring trends that have impacted Americans in regular intervals through the course of our history.  This is a facinating book and I reccomend it along with Straus and Howe's follow-ups,  MIllienials Rising and The Fourth Turning. You can also check out their website The Forth Turning.