Change

Change is the major message behind today's market, driven almost entirely by the Internet. Change in business model, change in technology, change in price and how businesses compete.

The Internet is causing businesses to be always on their toes, because competition is coming from everywhere. The fact that anyone can interact with anyone else at anytime, in almost anyway they want to has opened the doors to commerce for everyone. These doors used to be sealed to business suave guys, people that knew how to build a chain of stores, develop shipping trades, create great products to offer, and pay money to tell you why you need it. The model isn't like that anymore. It is not a market like "I have this product, and I'll do you a favor by giving you it for cheap". Businesses are going into relationship counseling.

Businesses that have succeed in the past are the ones that make you love them. They are the ones that will make you think, "I would kill myself if I didn't have so-and-so." Google has done this. Think about what your life would be like without Google. Pretty crappy, huh? The reason an Internet company succeeds is it creates life so much better for you, the company becomes ingrained in your daily habits. While I write this, I am using spellcheck, and I would kill myself if I didn't have spellcheck. I love Microsoft Word.

Gasoline companies did this. People love to drive their cars. Walmart did this. People love to one-stop shop. Yet these companies were offering products. Successful businesses in the future will not offer products. Wait. Some will, because people need things like clothes, houses, and beer. But the Internet has opened a whole new market, the tool market. Tools to shop, tools to be entertained, tools to make money, tools to find people, tools to do your taxes, tools to learn, tools to share. And the fact is money doesn't effect how good your site is, it is more based on creativity. That means you get it cheap, sometimes free. So the little man has the wheel, but the only way he is going to get your money is if your riding in the seat next to him.

As for advertising, who knows where the Internet will take it. I do think that advertisers are going to have to start thinking alot "dumber" though. Take a look at the top 10 viewed youtube video's as of Jan. 2010. I'm a fan of some of these videos, but they are dumb.