The Class started sharp at 9 AM on somewhat similar lines of digging deeper into our own ‘instincts’ and the comparison with mental analysis. The most exciting thing about today’s session was that we touched upon the topic of Marketing, not because we explicitly mentioned it in the class but the way we reached there and the significance of Fast company article exercise. At times the Destination seems important (and it has to be), at others the journey is beautiful. This journey that all of us experienced today is the one that I am going to write about.
So, with a rainy morning and chilly weather we tagged the Humans with “the only animals who transact in material medium”. The question being addressed is, “what will happen in the ecosystem if the Lion is asked to submit the dead Deer on the counter asking for a price in return?” Will the instincts to hunt be affected?
Then we considered leadership for a while: Do we become leaders to do good for ourselves or for the rest of the community? Is it necessary to elect a leader? Or the leader comes up naturally following the same theory of instinct that we have already spoken about in plenty.
200 years of Industrial revolution have given us a lot of hierarchies and planned assembly lines to match the same framework. Be it the educational system within which standardized produce is collected at the end of every 12 years of schooling or others. Here we spoke about the lack of customization that exists within this framework. The cobbler used to sew custom made shoes to each and every villager’s size before this era of mass production came in. Today we have to see our way through a standardized fit 5-6-7-8-9 or whatever size. So, is the industrialized economy good or bad for the consumers? And, the punch comes in with “customer is the king” and the parody is that we mention only those things overtly which are usually meant to conceal the true intent.
Size of business soon became proportional to the ability to broadcast (advertise). This broadcast that existed since long has been unidirectional and directed from one-to-many. The market is under the influence of those who can broadcast and broadcast well. But the means are changing with times. Google and Gmail have no clearly defined marketing departments. May be it’s the power of network that works here and the same power distributed across nodes that make them interact.
Finally, we considered metapolation over evolution and transition. The various industries that surround us today are in various stages of a straight line graph of increasing efficiency. But some of them have managed to transition from one phase to other with what we called a fundamental change; like the way people used to communicate using the postal services and telegraph have significantly changed to e-mails and mobile phones.
Then the same products that we get out of the industrial revolution can be summed up with these beautiful lines: (It's a song)
Once, long ago there was a time in what now seems a distant land
Each small boutique was precious and unique
'Cause every little thing was made by hand
Then there came a revolution
The progress of production was its aim
Now instead of one, there were many
And each costs just a penny
But every single one looks just the same
Now there's a Starbucks on every bloody corner
McDonald's on everybody's street
There's a White Castle, Wendy's and Walmart
And then it all repeats
If you're th kind that looks down on the masses
Even for you there's a feint
Get some New Rocks or a pair of Docs
Look just like those who ain't
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