The ferry ride last night reminded me why big picture, high-level planning is best done offline, away from the clickbait and viral social web.
🎡 Behind the Ferris wheel, to the right, lies a historical marketplace that predates Meta and TikTok.
The Pike Place Market opened in 1907 as a way for farmers to sell to the public directly, combating the high food prices.
It still operates actively, with hundreds of “founders” offering anything from Greek falafel to indigenous scarves, to performing “fish throwing” as a clickbait, to handcrafted cheese and homemade cheese toast, to free trial of salmon sticks.
Packs of chips as complementary, along with “buy 2 get 1 free” deals at every 7th booth.
The market is still operational and crowded. Today’s “direct to consumer” looks similarly.
What you don’t see out there is the car salesman professionals or preachers selling courses, infomercials, or their secret strategies to success.
Non-product, non-DTC businesses are heads down at offices, or at tradeshows, or sponsoring events.
The current amalgamation of social, between AI comments and millions of solopreneurs fighting for attention, does not lead to higher quality. The principles of a marketplace are still rooted in quality and word of mouth.
Attention is rented, with limited seats in the market, whereas sheer virality would not pay the bills if quality and customer experience don’t follow.
If there’s a new bubble about to burst, it’s the cry for attention with dubious offers promising solutions to problems that everyone needs, but aren’t solved at scale. And if they do, diminishing returns annul the validity of said solutions in a matter of weeks, months tops.
If we want the web to remain a viable channel for anything but traditional fast-moving ecommerce, the current model should change before it’s too late.
🖌️ Meanwhile, the return to humanity is stronger than ever, with antique shops and art museums gathering large groups consistently and continuously, no matter what you read about AI by publishers counting on that final click and ad impression.
