Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Image credit: L'Enfant Terrible / CC BY-ND 2.0

In the 1969 song "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?" by Peter Sarstedt, the singer tells us of a woman who has everything a modern person could want - money, prestige, education, friends.  But in the chorus, he deflates her by asking where she goes "when you're all alone in your bed?"

Consumers - and those who market toward them - would do well to ask this question now. Ask yourself, when the iPhone gets forgotten, or the car is in the shop, or the Bay Bridge closes, or the coffee shop reduces hours, or the flight is delayed, or the DirecTV DVR blanks, or the WiFi (god forbid) has little or no connectivity - what the &*&#*% do you do?

When I think about the sheer number of things required to get through a normal work day, it at once impresses and intimidates me. What if it all collapsed?

Coping With No Technology
On one hand, you might say that you would panic. The normal pace of life slows and you struggle to adapt. But at a certain point, when you have legitimate excuse as to why you can't be there for the meeting, or have that email sent out...isn't it kind of awesome to just settle in and stare at a bird, or a cloud, or eavesdrop a conversation?

On the other, you might say, you relax.  Who cares if my TMZ feed doesn't pick up for the next 12 hours or I have to wait for a repeat to see Mad Men? But at a certain point after the initial thrill of silence, you are a modern person who has to communicate and consume media just to get by, right?

A  Blessing In Disguise
I dance this line each time I hop in the car without my Blackberry, seemingly changing my mind every 10 seconds as to whether this misstep was a blessing or a curse. Usually I settle on blessing, but when the trackball recently fell out - and the choice of "no 24/7 phone or email" became less of a choice and more "this thing won't work even if I need it to" a certain discomfort did overtake me.

If experience is any guide, I tend to be much more productive listening to no music in a peaceful setting and focused on one task. But when I meet, say an auto mechanic on a lonely stretch of road in Nevada, my usual response goes only a few steps past fascination. I doubt I could pull a shift in his shop on a regular basis.

What Do You Do?
Is this magic man of no computer, phone, TV or other "distractions" actually more interesting than me, because he can do without? Or is fixing a fuel pump not enough of a trade for a modern person? The answer has some interesting implications for marketing folks...especially those dependant on technology to deliver the message.

So just for fun, ask yourself...where do you go, my lovely?  Write your thoughts here and maybe we can tackle the implications portion of this in a follow up blog...assuming our server doesn't crash.

Mike Hudson