Being Buzz-worthy

I found this week's lesson very interesting, especially Seth Godin's Ted Talk.  I thought everything he said was spot on.  Marketers can no longer push their messages on consumers like they use to because consumers simply don't care.  I am most definitely one of those consumers who skips commercials with DVR and deletes all the marketing emails I receive (I actually created a separate account so I don't even see them!).  The only way to get consumers (including me) to check out something new is for them to hear/see people talking about it.  I may delete emails, but I religiously check my social media accounts and if several people I know post or tweet about something I almost always check it out.  Therefore, it is the goal of companies to create something buzz-worthy that gets people talking.  One company that comes to mind that kind of started this movement of creating buzz was Godaddy.com.  They used prime expensive superbowl commercial space to create buzz, rather than explain who they were and what they did.  I along with I'm sure millions of others immediately went to godaddy.com after their commercials aired just to find out more about them.

I also thought the article "Death of Segmentation" was interesting.  The article talks about how companies targeting customers through segmentation is a way of the past.  With all of the data available to us now the way of the future is targeting individual consumers.  The author gave companies 18 months to make this transition.  This really makes we wonder about my company.  Just this past year we updated who our target segments were and I do not see any movement to individual targeting.  I feel the movement from segments to individuals will be a slower process, but I do think the companies that move first will be the most successful.  I hope my company doesn't get left behind in this movement.