Homogenization, Commoditization, and Mediocrity in Inbound Marketing

Social Media, Inbound Marketing, and The Mediocre Majority

Whether you are listening to Earl Nightingale in Lead the Field, Dan Kennedy in No B.S. Business Success, or Mark Twain just being Mark Twain, there is consensus among all three of these gentlemen.

Interestingly, it is an observation I made for myself a long time ago!

The line of thinking goes something like this:

If you have no successful example to follow in whatever endeavor you choose, you may simply look at what everyone else around you is doing and do the opposite, because — THE MAJORITY IS ALMOST ALWAYS WRONG! Dan Kennedy paraphrasing Earl Nightingale.

It is Dan Kennedy who coined the phrase:

“The Mediocre Majority”

Mark Twain noted the same thing 90 years before!

Interestingly, Mark Twain and Dan Kennedy may have been cut from the same cloth…both seemingly Professors of Harsh Reality. At the very least, they are both thought of in terms of their No B.S. approach to the truth; and to life as they see (saw) it.

It was Mark Twain (1904) who stated that, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”

I agree!

There is process that takes place in the United States, and perhaps abroad; and, it repeats over and again:

An idea is introduced and everyone goes crazy about it, we can’t get enough of it. This has been the case for everything from hoola-hoops to mini-skirts, from bell bottoms to wine coolers, and from long hair to Cabbage Patch Dolls. We go bananas, can’t get enough of it, and nothing can keep us from whatever the latest trend is.

If it is behavioral, we will go from one extreme to the other, a knee-jerk reaction of sorts. We go from the nonconformity of the mid-60s to early 70s, to the “greed is good” and the BMWers of Yuppie era and the Wall Street ‘80s. We go from the social consciousness of the ‘90s and concern for the homeless, to watching them all-but-disappear as an issue by the early 2000s.

We’ve witnessed the emergence of video games from Pong to Pac Man to Donkey Kong to Super Mario Brothers and on to games with graphics so real and so violent they require warnings.

Remember Netscape? How about WebCrawler? Remember SuperCalc? Word Perfect? AOL? MySpace? Yes, many are still around but they have faded or are fading, they’ve evolved, or perhaps morphed into something almost unrecognizable. But they were all one King, or nearly King, of the Hill.

Now?

Interestingly, we are witnessing it again in all things Internet…and particularly as the Internet relates to social media!

We’ve watched the emergence of Overture, Yahoo, Google, and now Facebook. Yes, MSN-Bing is in there somewhere…but where?
Can there be any doubt that this latest move with Yahoo may be too little too late?

Incredibly, we hear inbound marketing consultants, young inbound marketing consultants, exclaim enmass that outbound marketing is dead.

Outbound marketing is dead…long live inbound marketing!

Long live inbound marketing?

We’ll see!

Of one thing I am certain, we are witnessing its rapid evolution into something else, something homogenized.

As a few players attempt rein in control and assert themselves as the authorities, complete with certification and pricing, we are also witnessing the commoditization of inbound marketing.

Significantly, and this brings me full circle back to the introduction, as we become more homogenized and more of a commodity?

We cease to be remarkable, we cease to be innovative, interesting, and provocative…we become something less!

What?

I am not quite certain yet!

Of one thing I am certain, Mark Twain, Earl Nightingale, Dan Kennedy, and I have been around the block enough, with Dan and I still circling (thank goodness!), to know that nothing remains the same and three things are certain: