Critique

For my critique I read Seth Godin’s blog called “Sixty to Zero” and formed the following opinions:

Godin writes about how car companies always market acceleration and other features related to speed but do not market braking. He isn’t meaning for this to be the main topic of the blog, but it is an interesting thought. My conclusion is that braking is not exciting and does not sell, unless the company is Volvo (actually Volvo has a commercial airing right now about automatic braking on the new S60). Acceleration can be a point of difference that makes a car superior to other cars, while it is a basic and rational expectation of the consumer that the car can safely brake in a reasonable time. Fast acceleration is a luxury while braking is a necessity.

Ok, what Godin is meaning to get to is that sometimes marketers have to hit the brakes hard and find out where they are, such as in the newspaper industry. Marketers and the industry in general have no clue how to save print papers. I get all of my news online and feel that my generation will be the generation that kills the print-newspaper industry. A lot of factors come into play on why my generation is not subscribing to papers: (1) all of the information can be found online, plus we can find more specific articles that we want to read; (2) newspapers create a lot of waste and require a large amount of energy to print and deliver; (3) newspaper subscriptions are an added cost that is not necessary; (4) and the list goes on.

Godin makes some bold claims, such as 90% of sales will come from word-of-mouth or digital promotion by 2011. I agree that both are important and word of mouth can be extremely successful, but I do not see where this number comes from. There are many other mediums that marketers use to reach potential customers which I believe account for over 10% of sales. The 2011 deadline may be a little short too since not everybody has the Internet or a PC.

Another claim made is that outsourcing will improve in technology so much that it will be cheaper to outsource than do anything in-house. I agree more with this claim, but sometimes data is confidential and contains business secrets so in-house data functions will always be around. Most outsourcing firms do have a greater competitive advantage and larger economies of scale, but it is unlikely businesses, especially small ones, will outsource everything.

One last claim is that there will be no major print editions of major newspapers by 2012. While print is on the way out the door, it can’t be counted out too soon. Many consumers just like the experience of sitting down to coffee and the paper in the morning and will continue to do this. Large newspapers will likely consolidate or charge higher prices before they completely go away. Once again this is another claim by Godin with no support to back it up. 2012 is in the not-so-distant future and while a few papers will almost surely go under, not everyone will. I think of the Wall Street Journal when this is mentioned; the Journal has a large readership and will likely outlast many of the other papers due to its quality and relevance to the business industry.

After reading the blog and seeing how staples like the newspaper are slowly going away I wonder what other mediums will disappear. In the not so distant future it is likely that cable and satellite may be old news when consumers have on-demand access to every TV show ever made via televisions connected to online databases. My TV viewing habits have been altered due to programs being offered online for free and I see this as a topic that will be important in the future.