I just spent 2 and a half hours trying not to lose hope for the future of business leadership in America.
I am taking a Marketing Research class that is very much focused on the 1990′s method of business — which is fine. That is what I expected, so was very surprised to get an assignment for a case study on what I would call a “new economy” case and assumed my classmates might be happy about it too. I was wrong.
PlentyofFish.com (PoF) is a very popular and completely free online dating service. Normally, I would not be discussing dating tips on FG, but there are important lessons for the future here. This site was developed by Markus Frind and generates over $10 million in revenue without selling anything except ad space.
The thing about PoF is that it works better than paid matchmaking sites because its users are very robust and interactive. Regardless of your views of finding love on a website, PoF generates a strong following because it works. Frind saw a problem, learned a programming language, then solved it for free. PoF is more a piece of art than a business which is very unsettling for Harvard case study writers, university professors, and apparently young 20-something MBA students.
As my classmates and professor tried to crack the puzzle of how something like this could actually make money, the discussion eventually went predictably into how it could make more money (infinite growth paradigm). Some of the conclusions were that PoF was an anomaly that had succeeded almost purely on luck (statistical modeling), PoF could be a billion dollar business if “properly managed” (6 sigma), and PoF should be charging for its service (microeconomic theory).
Missing the point.
One of my all time favorite books is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Do you think Lee “mismanaged” this book? Do you think To Kill a Mockingbird is washed up because it’s no longer on the best seller list? Do you think Lee was purely lucky? Of course not. To Kill a Mockingbird provides value.
There is plenty of brilliance that goes unnoticed and unsupported, but I think one of the benefits of our transitioning socioeconomic condition is that things like purpose, art, meaning, and brilliance are becoming more valuable and worthy of our attention. People are transitioning to a more personal experience of meaning, and we need to support this. We need to find the cherry buried in 5000 pounds of dung. The internet has created a giant pile of crap intermixed with gleaming jewels of insight and connection that just leveled a playing field of peer-to-peer interaction and trade. In other words freedomguerrilla.com takes up just as much pixel space as goldmansachs.com.
This is terrible news for giant corporations who are desperately trying to figure out why we’re not logging on to their shitty, no content websites and instead reading Kunstler and Joe Bageant. Subsequently, instead of investing in complex financial instruments, more of us are buying garden tools and quitting crappy jobs. This is terribly frustrating for corporations! It is irrational behavior that cannot be explained by expensive modeling and statistics!
I’m reporting from the financial field, and I am telling you that you are an outlier and subsequently ignored and marginalized. But, the thing is — we’re getting harder to ignore.
Can online match seekers afford the $12 (or whatever) proposed subscription fee to join PoF? Of course. But, that’s missing the point. Frind is not a lottery winner yet there is no business model. He is an artist with a project that is energized by human attention span that happens to pay. He has created something of value to 11 million people.
In other words, I would rather barter, trade, or buy with one of you for your creation than order from a Home Depot catalog or hire a consultant to solve my problem. I would rather interact with your belief system than receive a one-sided lecture or piece of mind noise. I would rather share a purpose than an object that loses its meaning almost immediately.
I’m telling you, revenue and profit for the sake of revenue and profit is in the midst of an impressive swan dive off a very tall cliff into the scree below. This is something to celebrate, but look out below! I think now is a perfect time to take a quick mental inventory of what you have to offer and why.
If you want an excellent, concise resource that addresses what I’m talking about, pick up Charles Hugh Smith’s Weblogs & New Media: Marketing in Crisis
My question is, are you an artist, craftsperson, or a creator? Would you like to be?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
One of he popular mantras in the invention ‘business’ is to tell new inventors how they should invent something that is used every day so that you can keep selling it, such as toothpaste or toilet paper.
Recent popularity of localism brings up the ‘circulation of money’ in communities, where local jobs and value are created each time the money changes hands within the community.
PoF has somewhat of a version of this combination, where the circulating value is not money, but companionship, and each time the customers log on, it adds to the possible ad revenue ‘hits’. The more people use it, the more value that they get from each day’s participation, and the more they put into it.
Much of today’s economic attention is on activity that is supposed to simply feed the created value vertically into some pyramid without circulating locally. That worked well with cheap resources as feedstock for the consumption machine, but the ‘recession’ is really the money receding up into the pyramid and not returning to the bottom levels, or evaporating as soon as those at the bottom touch it. This is the analogy of money as the hydrological cycle: the more heat you put to it, the more it stays up in the atmosphere. Local needs-based activities don’t generate as much heat to evaporate the money because much of the activity doesn’t require money or the friction it creates between parties.
I make compositions on keyboard. I would love to write the score for an epic movie soundtrack.
Great post. I have found myself gardening and planting exponentially more each growing season. I have increased urges to engage in creative activities with which I have experience (such as sculpting/carving) and I have a real, aching hunger to create in ways I have never before entertained, such as painting with oils and building hand-made bicycles. It seems that the more our culture pushes catalogs and specialists, the more I want to get my hands dirty, make mistakes, and learn. My biggest dream is to create an interfaith group (and yes that includes agnostics, atheists, satanists, ANYBODY) that actively engages ecological issues at a local level, while contemplating global impacts. My dream is to have this group be entirely 100% volunteer run, w/ no paid staff, and to have a library of free resources and materials that represent the ecological relationships of every belief system represented in my community. Another dream? I am currently building a porch, something I have wanted to do for almost 9 years. I finally said “Fuck it” and went to work. I am a strong believer in front porch culture. I love hanging on stoops and sittin’ on porches. Its how I know my neighbors and scare off the wannabe gangstas. I got my design from introducing myself to people up and down my street and asking them about their porches. Seems every person with a good porch has a good story. I think we need more front porches and less 6-foot privacy fences.
Tommy,I’m happy to be ignored by corporate America, I love it. They get very very little of my money.
Great post, shows how truly out of touch they are with their endless meetings trying to figure out how to soak everyone even more. I’ve been to those meetings, they’re like a bunch of pirates sitting around. The times they are a changin’ and gladly so.
Tommy, thanks for the plug–which means a great amount to me because it came from you, someone with life experience who is “in the trenches” of status-quo “larnin’” and marketing.
“There is plenty of brilliance that goes unnoticed and unsupported, but I think one of the benefits of our transitioning socioeconomic condition is that things like purpose, art, meaning, and brilliance are becoming more valuable and worthy of our attention. People are transitioning to a more personal experience of meaning, and we need to support this. ”
YES! Well said and so true.
I appreciate how you get to the essence of the matter, Tommy. That happens to be one of your unique GIFTS – the ability to grasp the essence of an issue and make incredible ART out of the translation. That’s why I come here every day…to get heart-full, relevant, and inspired perspective!
You are so right to focus on PURPOSE, MEANING, and VALUE. They are the attributes that fuel genuine inspiration in people. When folks are inspired they accomplish great things like always writing an insightful analysis (ANTIEGRAV style), building a porch, making music on keyboard, or writing a book and or Blog (Charles+Smith you are my hero).
Most folks never sit themselves down and ask: What matters most to me in my life? What do I value? What brings me joy? What do I LOVE to do?
By answering these questions and digging for the details in support of them (in writing) – you build your own personal ROADMAP. (TREASURE MAP anyone?) It is your own personal Constitution – to guide and support you in fulfillment of your destiny.
You ask…are you an artist, craftsperson or creator? I am some of all three. My life is dedicated to helping others clarify their GIFT, find their path, and engage in the fulfillment of their Life Purpose. Being your GIFT is LOVE.
BE the LOVE you want to see in the world. In your thoughts, words, deeds. You LIGHT the way.
Note to ECOPAX – there is a BEAUTIFUL story waiting to be compiled/written/photographed as you fulfill your destiny by building that front porch. May the experience be TRANSFORMING and uplifting for all who come to sit and share with you.