too small

Posted on April 21, 2006 by Lee White

I was in a meeting with about 30 marketing professionals (brand managers, ad agencies, PR firms, etc.). At lunch I asked the question at my table: "what do you think of blogs and the other types of new media on the horizon?" One of the agency folks responded:

We are keeping our eye on it, but it is still too small to be concerned about.

I guess they haven’t looked at the rate of growth, the kind of data you would expect a good marketer to look at. Unfortunately my mind was not quick enough to make that point at lunch…

Of course they went back to the meeting to discuss marketing plans and what will be delivered in 18 months… I can’t help but think how different the landscape will look in 18 months.

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Any Questions?

Posted on April 18, 2006 by Lee White


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Originally uploaded by ljw7189.

Very cool dive, Utila Aggressor, Bay Islands, Honduras, April 2006.

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The Subjective

Posted on April 18, 2006 by Lee White

"Subjective" gets no respect in the English language. It is only an adjective. "Objective" on the other hand is an adjective AND a noun. What’s up with that?

Organizations thrive on dealing with "the objective". MBA stuff, the objective gives direction, it is measurable. Good ones are short, to the point and motivating. Just what every good organization wants, a tool for driving the troops. …and I believe in all this!

Problem is that a data -> information-> measurable -> dispassionate approach to decision making looses the richness of subjectivity. The fact is, there is never really enough information to make any decision on a purely objective basis. Organizations should instead embrace subjectivity as a compliment to objectivity, as opposed to pretending that subjectivity is a bad thing.

Now for the cool tie-in. Web 2.0 (or whatever you want to call it) is the institutionalization of subjectivity. Conversation, community, networks are all examples of the nature of subjectivity. An infrastructure based on those principles will allow organizations to leverage subjectivity and make it a true compliment to the objective tools already in use.

With that in mind, I am lobbying that "subjective" be coined as a noun. It could mean the conversation we hope to achieve as an organization.

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