It's a buyer’s world today. For any good or service, the number of brands and the number of sellers who can instantly reach the buyers anywhere in the world has grown dramatically over the past decade. In addition buyers have gained access to an enormous amount of information that they can “pull” whenever they want, while ignoring the majority of the marketing and advertising that is “pushed” at them.
Just between 1997 & 2001 pharmaceutical companies grew the average number of brands by 78%, beverage manufacturers increased their portfolio size by 25%, and the food and household goods industry added 81 new labels.
As if the organic growth of brands and products weren’t enough, the Web has removed geographic boundaries from the global marketplace, as online marketplaces like eBay and Craigslist enable anyone to become a seller. The size of these online marketplaces is staggering. eBay’s 135 million registered users in 2004 make it the worlds ninth largest country after Russia.
Not only has the web increase reach, it has also significantly decreased costs in marketing, sales and distribution allowing sellers to profitably sell previously uneconomic niche products – the long tail phenomenon. This dynamic can’t help but shift at least some demand away from “hot” products and redefine target markets – down to smaller and smaller groups. Eventually down to “markets of one”.