Generational Gap to the Future

As I begin to picture the future of online shopping and what I hope WhatisAverage.com can be apart of, I see a world where consumers never see or hear live TV or Radio advertisements for new products but instead consumers filter out big business advertising campaigns and rely solely on a survey of thousands of like minded people for the best, most reliable product purchase. If an Uncle is searching for music to give as a gift to his Niece, the Uncle can sample similar demographic groups as the Niece and filter the survey group respondents down to whether or not they've ever heard The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd before accepting their response on which new mp3 to purchase. And when the Uncle does find the most recommended mp3 with their desired filters applied, he can upload it to his Niece's itunes with a note scrolling across her iPhone saying, “Merry Christmas from Uncle Jack, this is what good music sounds like” every time she plays it. It makes me wonder, what were the holidays were like prior to streaming music and online product recommendations?

I think of a time when consumers hadn't yet uncovered the business behind current so called consumer recommendation magazines and industry performance awards. It was a time before "75% of people don't  believe that companies tell the truth in advertisements" and when people relied solely on advertising campaigns and magazines for the best idea of what new appliance to purchase or gift to get for their family members during the holidays. It was the time before “a person like me” was the most relied source for a product recommendation. It spurns the follow up survey for this week, “What did you get for the holidays prior to the invention of the Internet, Online Shopping, and Gift Cards?”

A look at the TV Series, Mad Men, gives us a look into the 1960s advertising world and the influence advertising companies used to have over consumers and large corporations. Now, the world is seeing much more innovation arising from small companies due to large firms' problems being hand-cuffed by incentives to executives and employees, single minded focus on current customers versus new markets, and risk adverse to new projects that may not generate sufficient return on investment.  It makes me wonder what does the future hold for advertising giants and will bloggers, social media, and start up consumer to consumer recommendation services (like WhatisAverage.com) make them obsolete? One thing is certain, with the rise in broadband users, adoption of social networking, and improvements in technology, the advertising giants will continue to have challenges holding on to advertising revenue market share.

Thanks for reading the inaugural WhatisAverage.com Blog. The goal of the blog is to bring readers interesting thoughts for reflection using results from WhatisAverage.com. I will occasionally talk about topics like online shopping, consumer product recommendations, online and social media marketing, and while I DO NOT hold myself out as a giving investment advice, I like to look at potential companies that could benefit from data being displayed. Thanks again for visiting and be sure to check out the many useful surveys on WhatisAverage.com.

Each Blog will contain a current survey that I center the topic around and then a follow up survey that corresponds to further reflection I had while looking at the initial results. I’ll open the survey up for all to participate in the day I release the Blog. 

• Current Survey:
  
• What Do You Want for the Holidays? (See applicable age group on site)
• Follow Up Survey:
• For consumers who had holidays prior to the invention of the Internet: “What did you get for the Holidays prior to the invention of the Internet, Online Shopping, and Gift Cards?”
• For all age groups: "What is the Best Music Album ever?"