The thread title refers to a quote from Chris Anderson's book - The Long Tail - Why The Future of Business is Selling Less of More
Here is the quote in context from Chp.7 The New Tastemakers
"We’re entering an era of radical change for marketers. Faith in advertising and the institutions that pay for it is waning, while faith in individuals
is on the rise. Peers trust peers. Top-down messaging is losing traction, while bottom-up buzz is gaining power. Dell spends hundreds of millions each year on promoting its quality and customer service, but if you Google “dell hell” you’ll get 55,000 pages of results. Even the word “dell” returns customer complaints by the second page of results. The same inversion of power is now changing the marketing game for everything from individual products to people. The collective now controls the message.
For a generation of customers used to doing their buying research via search engine, a company’s brand is not what the company says it is, but what Google says it is. The new tastemakers are us. Word of mouth is now a public conversation, carried in blog comments and customer reviews, exhaustively collated and measured. The ants have megaphones."
This set me to thinking about how the WTBS have traditionally controlled the message, the brand and the public perception. And the recent development in the Sep KM about barring individuals from doing external research seems to me a reaction to the new reality dexcribed above.
Unfortunately for them its precisely the opposite from what their marketplace is demanding. So like King Canute attempting to stem the tide they will fail. The Internet is a tidal force that sweeps all before it. Perhaps the hardline JW's who do not grasp the fact that they have compartmentalized their lives and subcontracted their conscience - research everything you need to at the click of a mouse, except my religion, my way of life and my faith - will remain 'faithful' and not look behind the curtain. And in developing countries where large parts of the poulation have never made a phone call never mind seen the Internet may be willing to subjugate their right to full information for paradise 'soon'.
Anderson makes the point that we are leaving the Information Age and moving into the Recommendation Age. Information is freely available -perhaps too much to cope without good filters. Personal recommnendation from trusted sources provide one of these filters. And yet the WTBS is still trying to control information - too late for that now.
I recommend the book - no pun intended - also more info here http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/faq/index.html
Besty <of the amplified ant class>
