“The paradise of choice”

 

The democratization of new technology has made possible for millions and millions of people to have more choices in products and services offered online.  The abundance of all these products and services has also made “the long tail” longer and longer. There are a lot of people who said that the availability of so many products, or having “too much” to choose from is actually a bad idea.  Proponents of this idea say that there are a lot of people who simply just does not know how to handle all the variety being offered online.  They argue that the less choices the better because it makes their selection process easier.  On the other hand, there are the proponents who support the abundance on products and services being offered online, people say that  “the conventional view is that more choice is better, because it acknowledges that people are different and allows them to find what’s right for them” (Anderson, 170).  Thus, people should be able to recognize the quality of the products.  Moreover, the fact that there are so many products online it does not mean that all the products are good.  Furthermore, that it why there is filtering online, so that consumers use them as a way of recommendation according to the consumer taste.  It is also important to acknowledge pointing out that the more products; the better people can compare the quality and the prices of the products.

Continuing with the abundance of “paradise choice” and the “long tail” on chapter eleven Anderson talks about why democratization of technology is good.  He talks about the regular mainstream culture (the traditional) vs. the subculture (“the long tail”).  He says that it is always good to have both, the mainstream culture and the subculture because as consumers we get smarter, due the choices that are being offered.  Anderson talks about how as culture we are all the same, but as individuals we are all different. and it is there that we can find our niche online.  “It shows that my tribe is not your tribe, even if we work together, play together, and otherwise live in the same world.  Same bed, different dreams…each of us belongs to many different tribes simultaneously, often overlapping (geek culture and LEGO), often not tennis and punk-funk).  We share some interest our colleagues and some with our families, but not all of our interests” (Anderson, 183,194).  As consumers we have the best of the two worlds: the mainstream and the subculture world, after all it is all about choices.  It is up to the consumer to decide.      

One of the problems with choice selection, is that once people have found their niches, many of them become issue polarized and close minded “As the customization of our communications universe increases, society is in danger of fragmenting, shared communities in danger of dissolving… if these technologies facilitate polarization in politics, what influence are they exerting over art, literature and music?.. Are we promoting a creative individualism or narrow individualism?” (Anderson, 189).  This is true in part, because the more a person knows about an issue the more influence he or she will have, however, this has been the case through history and it will not change.  This is the case with big media, in politics, in arts, literature or music works. Those who know more, for the most part are the most influent in agenda setting, eventually people become issue experts in different parts of society. 

Scarcity a marketing sacred commodity

 

In chapter eight Anderson talks about the “law of vital few” which means that few own a lot of; and on the contrary, a lot of people own very little.  This philosophy equally applies on marketing.  Few industries control a lot of the content on, TV, radio, or Internet.  However, Anderson also says that the “long tail” keeps growing because people want variety and quality of products; and companies by having these services, costumers will switch their taste for demand.  The law of supply and demand changes, because the more variety consumers have, the more choices they will have to choose from, thus as a result, “the long tail” will grow even bigger. This is because niches for new products that that did not exist before are now available for people of different taste.  Moreover, the distribution methods are easier than it used to be in the past making products available to costumers literally who live around the world.

Age and popularity is correlated to the purchasing of new products; this is another reason why “the long tail” keeps growing.  Anderson says that new things sell better for various reasons: first, there is the age factor; adults between 18 and 32 tend to spend more on new products.  However, there is also a demand for other products.  Thus I make the connection based on the discussion we had last week in which you (professor) Meraz explained that in the marketing industry, everyone is looking for attention, and attention is really limited.  Due to the fact that everyone wants to bee in the “hit” list, then everyone is fighting really hard to be in that spot.  “Although there may be near infinite selection of all media, there is still a scarcity of human attention…” (Anderson, 146)

In the scale of economics, Anderson says that, in a capitalist society, this is the way the market works; whoever, comes up with the best marketing strategy, is more likely to create a hit in this diverse communication medium.  Since it is so diverse he says companies try to create a product that fits for the majority of a homogeneous audience.  “One size fits all” is what producers intend to create to bring people’s attention.  Since there is a surplus or abundance of products, niches inevitably establish themselves.  However, this is not seen as a bad thing, because in the long run, if a product is good, it will sell regardless of the new products coming to the market.  Nonetheless, there are online a lot of “crappy” products because there are no filtering systems and contrary to what many people think, filtering is good for consumers because it helps consumers from buying a useless product. This is another reason why the long tail keeps growing, growing, because there are a lot of useless products online, and not necessarily to supply and demand.         

“The New Producers”

 

In “The Long Tail” Chris Anderson talks about the tools and forces of democratization in technology.  Pretty much, he talks about that technology is becoming available to more people due to its lower costs.  He talks about the democratizing tools of production, the cutting cost of consumption by democratizing distribution and finally he talks about connecting supply and demand on the market (Anderson, 55).  He mentions that now, everyone has access to all kinds of new technologies and information. Moreover, Anderson talks about the people’s desire for knowledge and content online.

 

Anderson, talks about the revolutionary collaboration between “Pro-Am” era, “a time when professionals and amateurs work side by side” on the behalf of creating or discovering a product or a service for the good of the community.  An example of a “Pro-Am” product would be Wikipedia, which grew to be the number one online encyclopedia thanks to “Pro-Am” collective collaboration.  People from all sorts of life contribute their time and knowledge to make Wikipedia the most complete and used encyclopedia online.  Even thought Wiipedia is not considered an authority source, such as encyclopedia Britannica or Encarta, the collaborators from Wikipedia still do an excellent job.  As James Surowiecki says “The Wisdom of Crowds” democratizes and makes information available to everyone for free.

 

Following with democratization theory, Anderson talks about the five most important aggregators which are: physical goods, digital goods, advertising services, information and communities.  They are all, and important component to the Internet.  Now the “marginal const of manufacturing, shelving and distribution is closer to zero and royalties are paid when goods are sold” (Anderson, 95).  Digital information needs not space to hold it; all it needs is a computer.  Anderson also, says that there is a lot of online information because there are a lot of people who create content for “fun, self expression, experimentation, and some do it for the money or the repudiation.” (Anderson, 89). Nonetheless, he says this is what makes the Internet democratic, because there is something for everybody. 

 

The Long Tail

In ‘The Long Tail” Chris Anderson gives a brief evolution of the way commerce was done.  He talks about our past consumer behaviors, which has changed from the traditional catalog, purchase, driving to the store, buying products over the phone; to the latest purchasing practice: E-commerce. In chapter one, he explains the major changes the mass media is going through. He explains that all mass media audience has decline over the years, especially since the early 1990’s when the Internet emerged.  A great amount audience who relied on books, radio, TV, newspapers and magazines has been shifting to find more products and services Online.

Anderson explains that the audience for products or for mass media consumption is not disappearing; he says that the audience is just shifting and finding their own niche.  The fact that the mass media was obsessed with creating homogeneous programs for viewers did not mea that viewers liked what they watched, listened or read.  It just meant people had fewer options to choose from.  With the emergence of Internet all that has changed.  Now every consumer from any part of the world can choose from hundreds of thousands of options that once they did not have. 

Internet has revolutionized our lives, the way business is done, there is not time or space to choose anything from anywhere.  Now consumers are finding their own niche, their own time, their own interest without having to listen to the big mass media outlets.  As Rupert Murdoch once said, “people want control of their media, instead of being controlled by it.”  People are still consuming but they are fragmenting according to their tastes and need. . For example, now it is possible to listen to a radio station from another part of the world, watch our favorite programs online or search information that it is not possible to find in the local library.  The Internet has become the new “Whish Book” idea invented by Richard Sears, in which anything can be found but what it has done in only one place, “ Internet has eliminated most of the physical barriers of buying” now we have unlimited selection to choose from (Chris Anderson, 49).