your friends don’t really care what you have to say. marketers do

We are constantly being followed. And the sad matter is it’s not an overstatement.

One of the latest things marketing buzz has grown around is any brand’s possibility to research for campaigns and products by taking the pulse of online conversations. It’s like having access to an international focus group that isn’t affected by such things as your expectations. To marketers this information is priceless. This is why they should be the first to encourage people to tweet and blog about every single insignificant detail of their daily lives. Because it allows them to form a clearer picture of who we are, what we want and how much we would be willing to pay to get it.

Filed under: Of the immediate real world, The times

who’s afraid of the internet?

This is Romania… close to everybody.

I was in a cafe earlier today with a few friends and a couple of people I’d barely met. And one of us didn’t know about Second Life so me and one other person started explaining. It was the sort of crowd that doesn’t go out of its way to be online. Savvy people but grounded. And I’m kind of a new media buff so i went into it a bit further than I should… and I’ll also write about it here, to get it out already.

I think the world is changing fast and dramatically. And if you don’t believe it yet, think 15 years ahead. When 5 year olds that are growing up with IPhones, Second Life & WOW will be 20 and active under every social aspect. Do you think they’ll resemble your current definition of humanity? Feeble as it may be…

Thing is people are in fact changing. As our psyches are subjected to more and more different, active and interactive sources of information, they adapt. They learn to accumulate tremendous amounts of data in short time periods but lose out on long term dedication. The  reverse would be slipping into addictions… of multiple sorts: with brands, virtual reality, etc. It’s happening right now anyway… only in time the alternatives to real life will keep getting better and better… while the sense of ‘real’ will lose focus probably.

We’re just going to have to live with it. Adapt. Maybe most of us, that like printed books & newspapers, shaking hands instead of twittering, kissing instead of “xoxo”-ing aren’t very comfortable with it. But my guess is there isn’t really going to be much of a choice. Neuro-headsets are no longer big news. And odds are similar technologies will be put to use in all matters of daily life, as we move towards the automatization of everyday tasks. So soon being on-line, connected, geared in the web, will no longer be a choice, but the only way to get anything done.

So what I’m saying is… don’t fight it. Live with it, make the best of it that you can. Fighting something is also a way of letting it control your life, just not the comfortable one. Not in this case. Learn to accept the advantages while keeping in mind that there’s no other thing like real human contact. Your experience is the only thing you need to confirm that and keep it meaningful. It takes a lot more effort to defend it by attacking the ‘alternative’ that the www. has become. Just try to learn quality stuff as you go along and keep an eye out for slippery places.

Cheers!

The top video was a presentation of the uses of technology in the year 2019 – via Microsoft at the Wharton Business Technology Conference.

This one will remind you that everything is so amazing right now and nobody’s happy.

Filed under: The times , 2019, change, community, generation, humanity, internet, neuro-headset, psyche, technology

another view of recent conclusions form neuroscience experiments

I discover all sorts of things in my RSS reader and this particular article attracted my attention due to the shocking title: “Poor Children’s Brain Activity Resembles That Of Stroke Victims, EEG Shows”. 

Makes you go ‘Oh my God, save them, I’ll donate, I promise!”. But anyway, I looked into more than just the title and this is what I found: 

“The researchers discovered a dramatic difference in the response of the prefrontal cortex not only when an unexpected image flashed on the screen, but also when children were merely watching the upright triangles waiting for a skewed triangle to appear. Those from low socioeconomic environments showed a lower response to the unexpected novel stimuli in the prefrontal cortex that was similar, Kishiyama said, to the response of people who have had a portion of their frontal lobe destroyed by a stroke.” 

Now… this may just be me, but this how I see it: a bunch of scientist flashed moving pictures at a small horde of 9-10 year-olds and the one from the poorer families didn’t exactly hurry to react to them. Which should apparently mean they have lower brain activity. Um… wrong! How about kids from underprivileged families just… don’t care about your moving triangles?! How about you show them a giant Mars bar? See if their brain activity improves there? 

I do know that these people supposedly know what they’re doing. But it just seems reasonable to assume that… sometimes lack of creativity and early response to stimuli can come from lack of motivation. Extended to a general lack of hope, even in the case of children that we’ve gotten used to see as the great optimists of the universe. Maybe they’re not doing well in school and being poor has something to do with it, but before thinking that it’s damaged their brains isn’t it in plain sight that they’ve simply been raised with and under a different perspective? One that may very well limit not speed but the will to respond to whatever people unable to really help you may ask. 

And for things that seem to not be affecting us personally, here’s what’s been going on:

Filed under: Laid about opinions, Life teaches us..., Non Daily Happenings, Of the immediate real world, The times , development, motivation, poverty, study

the inevitability of trendiness

Yes, it finally happened, like we all knew it would.

And speaking of me being an Apple buff, here’s one negative thing about what is probably the most powerful thing in the world:

“…no matter how amazing your brand message is…No matter how beautiful your product is…No matter the level of customer service…your customers will want a real say in what they purchase and even what your product should be. Don’t be shocked when it happens either. Take it as an opportunity to learn. Let it soak in for a minute. Let their voices be heard and see if what they want might actually help you the next time you engage them.” -> by Matt Binkowski of Jack Morton, after analyzing Apple’s fight to keep its software “private” for sales’ sake

And to further this opinion, take a look at this insightful piece of “now”-coherent writing.

Also, check this out:

“Given the “pro-social” mentality of younger consumers, cause marketing is likely to keep growing. The 2006 Cone Millennial Cause Study found that among consumers born between 1979-2001, 61% feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world—and 78% believe that companies have a responsibility to join them in this effort.” – from an article by Liz Bigham

I’m looking into experiential marketing partly because of the day job. Yes, I do however think it’s fascinating and the reasonable step in marketing strategy for any company. Any up-to-date self-respecting brand is already using it and has a long time before it became a topic of discussion, anyway. That is, before respecting the consumer was actually a trend.

However, it all ads up to the same thing: not just companies, but everybody has to go with the flow. Of course we’ve got a soft spot for the past. Hell, I adore Bob Dylan (speaking of which, kudos to one of the world’s better people, Julie White that gave me The Bob Dylan Chronicles, volume I for my bday). And he loved folk music. It is the past that builds us, but it builds us for the sake of the future and it is ludicrous that after all our efforts of reaching and achieving that somehow target some distant time, we could, still, not give a damn about the future.

There’s no common sense towards growing steadily, proficiently, responsibly in what we do. Especially with Romania. It doesn’t happen with people or companies. We’re all just focused on meek, scanty, selfish objectives that have nothing to do with the world around us. And we are in fact the world. Not the cars, not the buildings but the spirit of the era. And we connect from trees, leaves and the rain to everything alive and more real than superficial name-tag elegance.

And, also ludicrously, marketing is probably one of the best examples out there. Because it changes, it evolves, it switches course, anything to grow and stay alive. Talented marketers should be nothing more than elegant fighters, pushing everybody else forward, telling you who to be and what to want, so long as you’re not capable of deciding. They find ways to interact and keep you connected, hook you so badly that any woman in love could take a hint. Brands are probably like women anyway, all trying to get married to the same man: the consumer.

Right… Far too late for my gibberish now. Off to doing.

Filed under: Laid about opinions, Life teaches us..., The times, To Dos , change, evolution, experience, hi5, marketing, trends