I didn't post this as a rant against "the machine" but rather as a simple observation that made me ask "what does this mean to me?"
This article made me think about how marketing has changed in my industry. A million years ago when Al Gore and I used to have coffee together we would postulate this thing called the inter web. We reasoned that there would eventually be some kind of key word search so I used three important keywords in my company name.
This worked for a very long time. No matter how you put those key words together I am on the top of every google search. That, in combination with better than average photography, worked really well for me.
Until it didn't.
The world found a different watering hole so my customers don't come so much from google anymore. Great photography on Houzz used to work but now everybody has great photography. In my corner of the woods there are now 130 photographers you can hire. Everybody with a DSLR has learned how to light a photograph.
A customer of mine in San Francisco recently lamented the influx of tech workers and the impact this was having on Victorian era houses such as hers. She used to have a local Re-Use store to shop at when looking for old windows, doors or moldings. That store recently closed because the new demographic of worker wants modern cabinet styles not old.
As these tech workers come to town and bid up the price of housing this will change the products we should produce. General Electric sold it's financial division to a company that last year bought 50,000 residential rental properties. When you have to compete with Wall Street to buy your first house it's gonna be tough. Trying to sell a bean counter an upgraded kitchen is also going to be tough.
Reading the NY Times usually gives me a lot to think about. Whenever I don't read it I feel like I am missing something I probably need to know.