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EGR - Gonzo Marketing, Chapter Two
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Christopher Locke
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May 15, 2001 16:40 PDT
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cross-posted to TDCRC. Apologies to the faithful for the duplication.
the rest of you hosers had better make yourselves useful. otherwise,
I am putting together a little list of your addresses to send around
to the most notorious spammers I can locate...
RB
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The Titanic Deck Chair Rearrangement Corporation
http://www.tdcrc.com
(NASDAQ:TDCRC)
May 15, 2001
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Current Subscriber Base: 688
Surely We Can Do Better
mailto:tdcrc-su-@topica.com
Valued Co-conspirators:
OK, so I got the date wrong on that last send, as Norlin so gleefully
pointed out to me. It seems that he didn't really go off to "the woods,"
as he promised, but is instead hanging out in some sleazy pool hall in
Wichita Falls. But who cares? I'm firing his ass as soon as I add a few
more members to the board.
More substantively (ahem), I just put another chapter of Gonzo Marketing
online. Waiting until October for this thing to hit the stores is
driving me batshit. I can't stand it. So I threatened Perseus Publishing
that unless they double-down on my advance, I'm going to put the whole
freaking thing up in HTML. There's always a way around the lawyers --
especially when it's too late to matter much. I mean, what are they
going to do? Spank me?
Eight Miles High: The View from 40,000 Feet
http://www.gonzomarkets.com/8mileshigh.html
The file is well over 9,000 words, so grab a cup of coffee and get
comfortable. What do you really care about that project that was due
yesterday anyway? Here are a few clips to get you started...
It's possible to spend days and weeks online without ever seeing an
ad -- if you don't count the email spam (delete, delete). Many sites
have no sponsors, yet are drawing an audience. How do they make
money? They don't. They are labors of love, created on nights and
weekends by people deeply, often obsessively interested in their
subject matter. Think about it this way. You know those horses and
bison on the cave walls in places like Lascaux and Altamira? Can you
imagine this conversation with one of the Neolithic artists who
created them?
"Nice execution Gork, but who's bankrolling this site? I mean,
have you lined up investors yet? Any backers? And what about
sponsors? Do you have a business plan *at all*?"
"Duh. Gork not think of that. Gork guess he get busboy job down at
Wooly Mammoth Burgers..."
Think about it this way. If the business notion of best practices had
been applied from the dawn of human civilization, human beings never
would have achieved civilization. Art history would focus on things
like ancient Roman bas reliefs of the current Tide and Cheer
equivalents, the Sistine Chapel ceiling would say "Bank With Medici!"
and instead of a torch, the Statue of Liberty would be brandishing a
tube of Preparation H.
And this bit, ever so apropos to the sorts of existential questions I've
been getting about this very list...
But first, a word about shameless self-promotion. Media budget in the
low three figures? Don't know how you'll ever make ends meet? As four
out of five net-heads and zinesters have discovered, shameless self-
promotion is just the ticket! And as your dentist will tell you, it's
an important part of a regular program of bottom-up gonzo marketing.
It's also an important part of our core theme, so try not to look too
shocked as it dawns on you that, in this case, the bogus self-
effacement so typical of business books went AWOL right from the
outset in this one. We now return you to another exciting episode of
Practice What You Preach, already in progress...
That seems like a good place to drop this in again, just in case you
like maybe FORGOT or something.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738204080/entropygradientr
And here's one more clip. I can visualize the guy. His name was Mr.
Wiley. No lie. I got real good at dropping anvils on his head and
speeding away. Beep beep!
Gonzo marketing provides a model whereby companies can stop
manipulating people as if they were abstract demographic data, and
instead create genuine relationships with emergent online communities
of interest: powerful new web micromarkets. The paradox is that
companies can have everything they've always wanted. Greater market
share. Customer loyalty. Brand equity. All those empty phrases that
today make people blow coffee out their noses. But companies can
actually achieve these goals. No, really. All they have to do is
follow the advice my Junior High principal once shared with me.
"Son," he said, shaking with anger, "you've got to get your thinking
straight!"
best
chris
---
Christopher Locke <clo-@panix.com>
Chairman, Titanic Deck Chair Rearrangement Corp.
http://www.tdcrc.com
October 2001 <> Gonzo Marketing: Winning Through Worst Practices
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738204080/entropygradientr
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