In the not-to-distant past, producers (and their intermediaries) controlled the entire production chain. They decided what would be produced, where it would be available, and when, where and how customers would find out about it. The result, over time, was a fire hose of brands, products and information.
In today’s world, there are endless customer choices, endless opportunities to find nearly real-time information (think Facebook, Pinterest, mobile ads and apps), and endless technologies to process it all (think smartphones and tablets). This convergence of massive amounts of media data and massive personal computing capacity helps customers research, evaluate and make buying decisions. But it also makes them more cautious than ever before and more distrustful of the information and its sources.
All of which has encouraged customers to gradually take more and more control of the production and distribution chain. The result? Intermediaries are being eliminated altogether. Producers who don’t respond to the needs and desires of customers are failing.
Customers select what they want, where they want to buy it, when, where and how they learn about it, and even how much they want to pay for it. They’ve become highly selective because they have so many choices, and so much ability to process them.
They’ve turned the fire hose into a Pinhole, through which they carefully draw only what is relevant to them.
Download our free whitepaper - The Pinhole Economy® - to learn more about how to navigate a Pinhole with your marketing.
Image courtesy of geograph.org.uk
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