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How the Internet Is Killing Hype
Why You Bought the Chutney
A Cisco Systems advertisement said it perfectly:
Old Days: You bought the chutney because you liked the jar.
New Days: You bought the chutney because everyone likes the chutney.
Some would say that we are in the age of flash and attention getting, and that it's all about the “jar,” meaning the shiny package of marketing that we wrap around our business to attract customers. In fact, the exact opposite is true. The days of winning in the market through your ability to glitz up your business through wildly imaginative marketing and promotion are gone. Forever.
The Internet is killing hype.
If you buy chutney today because you loved the look of the jar it was in and upon tasting that chutney you really don't like it, your next stop is the Internet. You go online and tell the world that the chutney stinks. As more people taste the stinky chutney in the fabulous jar, they also go online and tell the world.
It doesn't take long before the chutney company is out of business. In the old days, word-of-mouth, reviews took quite a while to get around. You told your neighbor that the movie you saw was terrible, that the hotel your family stayed in during vacation had mold in the room, or that the chutney you bought was stinky.
Now it takes you less than a minute online to tell hundreds of people. They repost your comments to reach thousands. Then those thousands spread the word to reach the rest of the world.
Hype is dead. Long ...
