Wrap up to Week 3

Resources consumed:

-mp3 of Gil and Frank's take on the long tail
-The seven Segment System for online marketing
-Disney world marketing tactics given our family trip to Disney

    The required lecture component of the class was the mp3 where the Professor's discussed their takes on the long tail theory that I blogged about last time. I was secure in my foundation of knowledge of the long tail theory from the last course resources from last time. The professors hit on an example or two of how the long tail products might proliferate themselves and I came up with the following aspects of normal media channels that I use to expand my music knowledge: the  iTunes "Genius" sidebar, cable TV digital music channels, Pandora music stations, and finally ever more-informed friend networks sharing their "likes" on Facebook. Each one of these is a relatively recent innovation in each of these areas and I find myself always using any one of these in complementing fashion to traditional band writeups  in magazines or heard on the radio. Each of these methods is ripe for long tail proliferation where a pseudo-indie listener like myself can find themselves leaning more and more indie and less mainstream simply because there are so many more choices available than were before with only profitable hits being broadcast. Each type of music that I am interested in can be accessed individually, with no commercials and serves to augment my knowledge of each genre. As a point that I will expand on below, I can see that I am a bit less satisfied overall with all of the music choices available, as referenced to traditional hits broadcast that have been vetted through multiple layers of the music industry before release.

      I was interested to hear about contra-theories of the long tail such as social commentary exposing the box office sales of a new blockbuster that influences the masses that haven't seen it to view it. I think this was/is the traditional way that most people heard of the new media coming out and based their viewing decision on word of mouth or professional critics' opinions before the committed to consuming it. Until the internet becomes the main vehicle for distribution for things like media, I can see this method remaining to be a powerful influencer. I also enjoyed hearing about The English Patient rule and other evidence pointing towards  more dissatisfaction with customer in the long tail as I hinted at above. Occam's razor points to the simplest explanation for an occurrence and it should follow that: if all of the media, lets use music as an example, in the long tail is not a hit for whatever reason, some of it will be a gem and most of it will frankly be crap.  I can easily see in that case how the advice to a digital marketer to refrain from putting all of your eggs in one basket when marketing in the long tail is warranted.

     I read the 7 segment system for online marketing and found it to be a bit boring and outdated but still conveying some wise principles to think about. Since some of the pop references in the article were to Ricky Martin and the Backstreet Boys, as a 30 year old I do not think it is a timely article to read today, since those guys were popular when I was in high school, and my 10 year reunion was several years ago now. However, that does not change human nature and different motivations when web surfing. As I learned about each type of web customer, I found myself thinking of examples of my own web surfing and how I had fit into each one of the categories that they mentioned and realized their point that not any one person sticks in any category to be completely true. With the advent of mobile surfing, I think this fact can only be more true today as our collective attention spans shortens to the length of a picosecond and we should now have the technology to accurately switch gears on our web marketing to effectively target each type of shopper.

     I am currently on a family trip to Disney World in Orlando, and I thought of the subject of this class while walking around the park with family and debating how crowded it is and theorized on how many people are carelessly spending their vacation money. After finding some statistics on the net, it seems that in 2007, around 130,000 people are present in all the Orlando parks on an average day, with around 50 million people visiting all the Orlando parks in 2007. With these vast amounts of numbers visiting and many of them self-proclaimed repeat customers, I just wanted to reflect on the power of their marketing campaigns where the entire park is based on the media that we all have consumed and know which is a wonderful synergistic relationship. As it turns out they are not just traditional marketing geniuses but online also, with Disney's various sites garnering awards from Market Week and other respected sources for their digital marketing initiatives. It seems that they mostly code their sites as family friendly information stops but the juggernaut that is Disney can effectively transition a potential kid customer from a free online game to enticing their parents to "learn more" about an expensive Disney cruise.
   
     As a final reflection I asked several questions as to why Disney needed to take so much information down from me when they issued my multi-day pass, and they answered back that they could better track a lost ticket but all they would need for that would be my name and phone number but they took my driver's license as well. It seems that they now can track everything about me through my resort card purchases and can better target advertisements at my house, for the next time I feel like spending thousands on a Disney vacation.