Here goes my attempt at recombinant culture. Although it may not be truly recombinant, rather more building on a stream of consciousness that my friend Faris planted in his blog recently.
The topic of this circling conversation is about creating a market for a good/service that has never before been marketed and in some cases was deemed "unmarketable." (Here's where things become a bit recombinant.) Faris' wrote a blogpost about the birth of Virgin. Richard Branson, God of Virgin, placed his faith in a musician who was deemed by others as "unmarketable." Branson created a market around the music and thus was successful. As Ian Fitzpatrick, who wrote a post about it, said: "When the market for the unmarketable doesn’t yet exist, invent it."
I find this to be extremely relevant for entrepreneurs. How could creating markets (or marketplaces as I like to call it) around new goods/services spark spending and thus economic growth? I also like this idea because it reminds us of how valuable an acumen in marketing really is. You can create a new thing-a-ma-bob, but if you cannot identify where (or create a market where) that thing-a-ma-bob will be profitable, you'll fail. Clients today are slashing advertising/marketing budgets so we as marketing folk need to prove our value. How could this idea help us do that?
So many questions, I challenge you to use the laws of recombinance (steal, remix into your own) and build upon this topic.
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5 comments:
love it. the laws of recombinance are spot on.
also -thought:
marketing = creating a market?
Faris,
Thanks! I believe that one marketing strategy could be to create a market. One example I found was in your post about Enron.
Marketing = mapping the market
Your product exists somewhere, even if there isn't anyone else there. If you've got a fan, if you have one person backing you up, you're marketable. (Would Flight of the Conchords be who they are without Mel?)
So finding a fan = finding a home = the beginning of the race. So help fans find a new home.
side note- I don't think market mapping is necessarily just a matter of two variables, which is how we typically think of it. No more of this x/y nonsense--there's a heck of a lot more to it. People aren't two dimensional, either.
Claire,
I like that way of looking at it - finding that unique positioning is definitely the place to start. Especially if you are an entrepreneur with a new product that doesn't necessarily have competitors. In that case you are not only creating awareness about your product but your (new) category in a way.
God bless Mel.
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