Just a thought that occured me when putting that last post against the link in it: if viral marketing is for niche targeting, how come Gmail, a mainstream web application (everyone uses email), got to make such a good use of it?
Just a thought that occured me when putting that last post against the link in it: if viral marketing is for niche targeting, how come Gmail, a mainstream web application (everyone uses email), got to make such a good use of it?
February 18, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Well, email certainly is used by the masses, but that doesn’t mean that it is meant for mass marketing. I certainly don’t think Google would have been so successful using television ads and billboards to promote gmail.
My point is, really, that McLuhan is still partially right in that the medium is the message…so, large bricks and mortar retailers should probably concentrate on marketing at their points of sale, whereas gmail should stick with marketing at theirs. By trying to yell your message across all mediums, the pollution just grows and the ‘consumers’ attention just gets fragmented. Nobody wins.
Thanks for your posts, btw…great thoughts.