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So selling was first. Door-to-door. On the street corner. Traveling shows and carnivals. It worked, it got saturated, it got exploited and then it got annoying. Soap, vacuums, shoes and whatever else at your door. While you're home. Invading your space. Interrupting your life.

We stopped responding.

So then this box appeared in everyone's house that contained content. The whole family spent nights in a week in front of it socializing and being entertained. Finding out what was going on. Learning. It was... the radio. Which became a TV. Which became the Internet.

But it was the radio we can thank (or blame) for the evolution of sales into advertising. Now they held us captive. Subsidized the content being shipped to us over the airwaves. Sponsors, brough-to-you-bys, anything. It worked. Plus the sales forces were still out there, so now it was a two-pronged attack.

So it saturated and got noisy and there was no distinction again. No distinction... no "brand"... WAIT! Branding!!! Shaazam! Marketing was born. Marketing is the anthropology of advertising. It was an inevitable occurrance. It's the science of introducing a new concept to a new culture. Using it's ancestors: sales and advertising. Marketing is a scientific discipline with an alchemistic bent. It's wizardry that uses math. Whatever. It's effective. Why? It works really hard to introduce something, make it understood and then get it used.

Again, this was effective. Logos, slogans, viral marketing, product placement, guerilla tactics, clever, clever, clever. People responded, it got saturated and exploited and then it was ineffective. Oh, and costly.

We got numb again. No, better, we got smart and paid to have content cleansed. TiVo, Satellite radio. Enough said.

But remember this whole process is social. We want to be in the know. We want to be included. We want to interact with others. So TiVo is lonely. Satellite radio is lonlier. We like the content free of interruptions. But we need to know.

Permission marketing. Via the Internet. On your terms. You pick the sales person that knocks on the door you want at the time you want with the information you want. The advertising and marketing are all built in to that person's one call on you. This is the new effective tool. People will respond. It will get saturated. It will be exploited. Then we'll be on to something else.

But right now, in the moment, I'm here to give you what you want, when you want it by getting to know you and being relevant.

| patrick |