It’s time we face an uncomfortable reality: maybe there’s too much stuff. There are too many companies producing the same widgets, too many commodity makers just trying to mimic the major players in their fields, and too many people helping them peddle their wares to the masses.
And, as marketers, we keep finding new ways to foist inferior products on our unsuspecting audiences. Search engine marketing. Content marketing. Digital campaigns. We’re bombarding people with stuff because we can. Because it’s easy.
As a result there are too many people creating web stuff—content, photos, infographics, apps—that nobody ever asked for, nobody needs or wants, and nobody is delighted to see. We find new ways to package the content that nobody wants to trick them into paying attention—videos, fancy scrolling features, text and graphics over heavily edited images.
We’re trying to solve product problems with marketing solutions. I’m starting to wonder about the value. Are we contributing anything good? When will it stop? Certainly we’ll hit critical mass at some point and people will stop paying attention altogether. I wonder what we’ll do then.