On the OPEN Forum
You’re In the Media Business Now.
John Battelle of SearchBlog | February 18th, 2008 - 04:27 PM
(22) found this useful. Do you? 
An age-old chestnut in business centers on the railroads during the rise of the automobile: Even as roads, cars, and 18-wheelers undercut rail’s dominance of the transportation industry, railroad executives comforted themselves by claiming dominance of the “trains business.” Goodyear, Ford, Mack – these new companies weren’t competitors. Instead, they were a new industry, similar perhaps, but heck, none of them made trains.Had the barons of rail seen themselves in the transportation industry, rather than the train industry, the great rail companies of the 19th century would still be household names. (Quick, can you name one now? Yeah, me either…)
So what does this have to do with your business? Well, we’re in the midst of a similar shift, but with a major twist. Today, I’ll assert, no matter what business you think you’re in – be it making widgets or providing a service, you’re now in the media business, plain and simple. Those that recognize this shift will succeed, those that ignore it will atrophy and eventually become irrelevant.
Now, what do I mean by the media business? Well, let’s start where all good businesses start: with the customer. Your customer’s media habits have changed dramatically in the past ten years. More likely than not, your customers spend nearly 15 hours a week online – it’s where they play, communicate, interact with services, and shop and research major purchases. In short, your customer has developed a major new media habit. The question is: Has your business?
Sure, you have a website. And perhaps, you’ve engaged in some search engine marketing, online yellow pages listings, perhaps even some banner ads. Perhaps these campaigns have worked for you, or perhaps they’ve seemed like a waste of time - too much work for the return.But maybe the problem isn’t the channels you’re using for marketing. Perhaps, instead, it’s the approach you are taking to the market. What might happen if you reframe your go to market thinking from that of a “small- to medium-sized business” to one of “a media producer”? What might happen then?
I’m not suggesting that you sell your business and get into journalism or entertainment, of course. But the point is this: your customers are ten or more years into the habit of interacting with the Web. They’ve grown sophisticated, and they are more than willing to conduct their banking, purchase their movie tickets, even buy life insurance online. To do so, they are increasingly interacting with sites that understand who they are – from smart search engines like Google to one-stop shopping services like Amazon and eBay. These sites are setting the standard for interaction on the increasingly sophisticated medium that is the web.
Does your site measure up? The web provides a mediated experience between your business and your customer. If your offering on the web is satisfying your customer’s needs (even those your customers don’t know they had), it’s time to consider a major investment in the web media business. The Web already is - or will soon become - your most important customer satisfaction and service (and perhaps even sales) channel. You may be in the “making widgets business” now, but no matter what you do next, you’re going to be in the media business. All aboard!
In my next post, I’ll go into some basic tenets of media, and drill down on two concepts: Search as the driver of customer intent, and your site as the platform for joining the “Conversation Economy.”
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Discussion Boards
Jon Garfunkel | February 21st, 2008 at 6:23 pm
John– I suppose you alternatively could have said that we are in the “conversation business” now; I don’t think the ClueGang has that trademarked.
But this site looks more media than conversation. 72 hours and here’s the first response.
Joel Cohen | February 22nd, 2008 at 9:00 am
The media business also includes one’s property and the 4 walls within it. A restaurant for example, is a media unto its own, having the ability to communicate various community events, special products and more … all within the 4 walls … and that includes the restrooms.
Phil Meyer | February 22nd, 2008 at 11:14 am
Right. But it’s not an “old chestnut.” It is a still valid theory of marketing, first published by Ted Levitt in Harvard Business Review in 1960 (”Marketing Myopia”). For a current application, see http://www.newspapernext.org, and for a recent explication of the theory, read Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor’s “The Innovator’s Solution” (Harvard Business School Press, 2003).
John Battelle of SearchBlog | February 22nd, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Totally agree that a business itself is media. Just back from an extended trip to the mall. Now that is media!
And Jon, give the conversation time to develop! This is a very new site, folks are just discovering it!
Chris Dornfeld | February 22nd, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Jon,
Enjoyed the article and it is great to see the discussion that is beginning to draw attention to the level of thinking that needs to occur because of the evolution in media (communication). Too much of these discussions are contained in the “marketing” departments and do not include the “C” level leadership of organizations. I would suggest we are in a period of communication evolution that will have greater organizational and process impact than IT did in the 90s.
- CD
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