Helping Demand Find Supply

Posted by Darren on Nov 23, 2011 • (Comments)

about advertising and operating systems. There are not enough advertising dollars in
the ecosystem to be the only revenue model for digital media companies so we must
look elsewhere.
Mobile impacts our future in ways many do not realize yet. When you are in the middle
of the early part of the Gartner Hype Curve, you do not know how large an opportunity
can become and often times, it is underestimated. Being hyperbolic on purpose, I feel
we are underestimating the importance of location, which is brought to use by mobile
data.
The key essence of the line, “Help demand find supply, not supply find demand” is all
about enabling a process, interface or system to help consumers consume, at its purest
form. Let consumers pull information, not just have it pushed down to them.
Mobile affords the opportunity for an interesting ratio (balanced maybe) of push vs.
pull marketing. The majority of marketing is push – supply finding demand. We buy
banners, magazine pages, television spots, billboards and the like so marketers
can reach customers. With location data as now part of the marketing optimization
mix, consumes can now request and pull information. Early current forms of this are
platforms like Groupon or FourSquare.
However, what happens when customers can reach us? What happens when push
budgets are down 80% and that money is invested to marketing around pulling? Could
this happen? It is happening, but Madison Avenue needs to retool and rejigger for this.
There is a famous quote by Henry Ford which says, “If I asked consumers what they
would of wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” This of course, refers to the
automotive empire he ignited. Steve Jobs has similar quotes. And of course, Mark
Zuckerberg does too. In a world where consumes can pull messages or find supply, do
we (as consumer) know what we want or need?
(open question, start thinking….. now)

The above quote stuck out from a recent conference I went to when we were talking about advertising and operating systems.  There are not enough advertising dollars in the ecosystem to be the only revenue model for digital media companies so we must look elsewhere.

Mobile impacts our future in ways many do not realize yet.  When you are in the middle of the early part of the Gartner Hype Curve, you do not know how large an opportunity can become and often times, it is underestimated.  Being hyperbolic on purpose, I feel we are underestimating the importance of location, which is brought to use by mobile data.

The key essence of the line, “Help demand find supply, not supply find demand” is all about enabling a process, interface or system to help consumers consume, at its purest form.  Let consumers pull information, not just have it pushed down to them.

Mobile affords the opportunity for an interesting ratio (balanced maybe) of push vs. pull marketing.  The majority of marketing is push – supply finding demand.  We buy banners, magazine pages, television spots, billboards and the like so marketers can reach customers.  With location data as now part of the marketing optimization mix, consumes can now request and pull information.  Early current forms of this are platforms like Groupon or FourSquare.

However, what happens when customers can reach us?  What happens when push budgets are down 80% and that money is invested to marketing around pulling?  Could this happen?  It is happening, but Madison Avenue needs to retool and rejigger for this.

There is a famous quote by Henry Ford which says, “If I asked consumers what they would of wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”   This of course, refers to the automotive empire he ignited.  Steve Jobs has similar quotes.  And of course, Mark Zuckerberg does too.  In a world where consumes can pull messages or find supply, do we (as consumer) know what we want or need?

(open question, start thinking….. now)

Tagged as , , , , , , , + Categorized as Advertising & Marketing, Startup & Venture Capital, Technology
  • Darren - Missed this post bc of the holiday week but catching up now and love what you're saying here. I referred to this same idea in a recent post as "billions of relevant moments"
    http://blog.yieldbot.com/hacki...
  • Kevin Krejca
    Speaking as both a marketer and a consumer, I got into Marketing specifically because I was such an avid consumer. I wanted to enable my consumer brethren with quality marketing. Quality initially meant telling consumers exactly what they were getting. After 15 years in the business, I can honestly say, consumers more often buy the dream than the reality. Tell someone a lump of coal is a lump of coal, they don't need it. But, tell someone a lump of coal is power for the future, everybody wants a piece of it!

    So long as human personality comes into play, the message will remain the same. HOW we deliver that message will most certainly change. Mobile is merely a new medium for delivery. The larger that medium becomes, the more similar it becomes to all mediums before it.

    Awesome question though... Thanks!
  • At some level with existing products & services demand can find supply. But when it comes down to marketing innovation (product or service)... the supply will need to travel to the (latent) demand - I, as a consumer don't know I want it till I see it sometimes!
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