Marketing used to be pretty easy to understand -- not simple mind you, but easy.  Marketing consisted of branding, public relations, advertising, trade shows and the like.  One could choose print media, radio, TV, billboards and such.

The company was in charge of the message.  Does anyone remember "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit"?

Today the world is on its head.  My last post discussed the great new book, What Would Google Do.  That book focuses on the model of free core offers that are supported by the ancillary things the core touches.  Content is less important than how to tap into content.

And all of this stems from the explosion of information that came about with the Internet.

I started my career in the 1980s when AT&T spun off the "Baby Bells" giving up the gold mine of monopoly POTS (plain old telephone service) customers for the holy grail of "a computer is just a node on a network."

That idea rang so true to me, who became a true believer in distributed computing and "information anywhere, any time, any place."

Everyone else laughed.  This was the era of huge mainframe proprietary computers (the BUNCH were still around -- Burroughs, Univac, NCR, CDC and Honeywell, although on the decline.  RCA had already exited computing.  DEC, Wang (no jokes please), Data General. . .these were the 'mini" computer guys with 64 KB of RAM or LESS (yes, LESS) -- names now gone as they either went out of business or were swallowed by others. . .

Microsoft is now on the edge.  It faces the same fate as the BUNCH and the minicomputer vendors if it doesn't soon wake up and realize that they've been commoditized.   Software is almost a "thing of the past" just as minicomputers went the way of the buggy whip and the VCR.  Will anyone buy software on a CD or DVD much longer?  Why, when you can access SaaS (software as a service) online?

Why bog down your internet access device (computer seems so passe, doesn't it?) with gigabytes of software when it changes daily?  Why not just tap into a secure app that is FREE or nearly free?

Years ago I interviewed for a job at Microsoft and they asked me who their competitor was.  Fresh from Teradata and in a DBMS (data base) state of mind I said "Oracle?" The reply was:  "Google."

Google?  Google???

But it only took me a second to realize they were right -- he who owns the eye balls, owns the person.  Google may have begun "life" as a search engine, but now it is so much more -- it is the gateway to the information highway.

Microsoft, I love you.  You've done amazing things --  Microsoft Dynamics, your unified communication platform rocks -- but you need to realize that the world has changed.  Aside from being global, it is viral.  If you want to stay relevant start realizing what AT&T knew back in the 1980s -- but failed to deliver.

A computer is nothing but a node on a network.

Stop focusing on delivering products for the computer.  Start thinking of the network.  Start thinking of the people as if they were on a vast buffet line (network) where they can pick and choose what they want (iPhone apps ring a bell?).

Because that is today's reality.  And it isn't changing any time soon.

An Epiphany

Reading is a favorite past time, and along the way I've learned a lot from books.  "SPIN Selling" taught me to look at the world from the customer's perspective and try to solve problems.  "Crossing the Chasm" taught me that many products die not because they aren't good, but because they don't "cross the chasm" from early adopters who have a different fear threshold than the mainstream market.

This week I found a new book that is amazing, and just as earth shaking as those books were.  The title is "What Would Google Do?", by Jeff Jarvis.  You can read a snippet of the book at Jeff's site, link.

Jeff's ideas definitely turn the traditional world of selling and getting paid on its ear.  He writes of the model of the product being free, andt he payment ancillary.  Google, he opines, doesn't make money from its search engine but from embedded Google ads and applications.  It is a fascinating read, and it makes all the sense in the world.

If you haven't read "What Would Google Do" run out now and grab a copy.  Just as the personal computer turned the world on its head, just as Microsoft and software over turned the hardware model of leadership, so too is the internet changing the entire world.   If you don't want to wind up being a buggy whip manufacturer you'd better understand the new paradigm.

What would Google do?