I went through my email this morning and there was one of those Linked In messages “5 things you need to know in the news this week.” I generally go through those posts and will read them if there is something of interest. The first article today was Seth talking about how average workers are going straight to the bottom. Seth is a remarkably smart man, has made lots of money in the internet–sold his company to yahoo and has written several books. Could I be brave enough to say I disagree?
We met Seth many years ago when he was at Yoyodyne–he hired the great and immensely knowledgeable Jerry S (with a last name that is not spellable for the average human) to run his marketing dept. Seth asked us to work on another marketing position for him and came with his laptop to show us his company. I remember asking about using non internet channels (such as direct Mail) to drive traffic to the site and Seth said, why would I pay to do that? He virtually convinced us that direct mail and testing via direct mail was dead and that it was pretty stupid to even think to use it. Okay, it was an interesting concept that I didn’t believe then and don’t believe today. I can attest to getting many catalogs and many solicitations from banks still today. Companies still use it; it still works. And did he come of with the concept for Permission Marketing or coin the term. Seems to me that the clubs and continuities and publishers have been doing some form of permission marketing for years, but not using that nifty term. Does Steve Markowitz, the internet Wunderkind of direct marketing know–was it Seth or Columbia House?
Which brings us to the real reason for this post. Average workers are going straight to the bottom; only the best and brightest will succeed and hold on to their jobs. It reminds me of a time when advertising agencies were only looking for black stallions,and when they got a herd of them together, they could all run but none could walk to get the work done. Point being that the best and brightest sometimes need to be supported by average work horses. And in an economy that is now challenging I’d say there is a place for the top and the middle. The bottom feeders get fed in a supercharged economy (before the dot com bust, where if you could walk and talk, you can get a great job). But an average worker that is a decent cog in the wheel is needed as much now as ever.
