Weird might be the new normal.

I’m now reading Seth’s latest masterpiece “WE ARE ALL WEIRD”.  Essentially, Seth puts forward the view that the bell curve is no longer shaped like a traditional bell.  There are less of the large group of normal people in the middle and more of weird people outside of the normal.  Seth asserts “Mass is dead. Here comes weird.”

And of course the Internet is making it all possible.  There are 1.2 million google entries under the search “scrapbook enthusiasts”.  These are some weird people who cut out all kinds of stuff and put into analog and digital scrapbooks.

Right here in Trinidad there is a group of car enthusiasts who gather 24/7/365 at  www.trinituner.com to share their common love for all things cars.  Here are their latest community stats as of today October 18, 2011:

  • Forum Posts: 3,170173
  • Forum Threads: 134,227
  • Registered Users: 34,399

These silly scrapbookers and crazy car guys and gals (and yes there are crazy car gals too!) are just two examples of all the weirdos out there.  There are all these tribes of people with a common interest and very often a diverse point of view.  Seth warns us that if in marketing you cater “to the normal, you will disappoint the weird.  And as the world gets weirder, that’s a dumb strategy”

5 Comments
  • Bjorn Stodart

    18 October, 2011, 11:35 pm

    cool post DR, we’re all a bit weird.

  • Jamie

    25 October, 2011, 12:20 pm

    Individual-based marketing.  Yes.  I am so glad that I am involved in marketing in 2011.  :)

    Weird really just means Unique.  Companies have to get to the core of their customer base and get to know them, know where they are looking and market to the niche.

    Thanks for the post, Dennis, and the hilarious cartoon. 

    ( I’ve got the audiobook on autoplay in the car for the morning commute.) 

    • Dennis Ramdeen

      2 November, 2011, 8:53 pm

      Jamie, there has never been a more exciting time to be in this business.  The thing is life has gotten more difficult for us marketers who used to be able to reach everyone we wanted to reach just by putting an ad in the 7 o’clock news.  Now people are all over the place….in the gym, surfing the web, bbm-ing, watching tv online or stuck in traffic.  We can’t nail all down in one place.  So we have to go hunt them down like Ian Alleyne, dr

  • Leigh Lopez

    1 November, 2011, 10:59 pm

    I enjoyed this immensely!