14 Cup Coffee Maker Changes Coffee Drinking Forever

The past decade has been pretty crazy. For a lot of reasons. First of all, growing up in the 80′s it’s pretty difficult for me to comprehend the idea that teens today aren’t watching TV – at least as much as they did when I was in braces and listening to Duran Duran. They’re spending most of their time online, or Xboxing, or texting. Or, to make things even more confusing, many kids are watching TV – online. But, I digress.

From a marketing perspective the last decade couldn’t be more different than the decade before. Results driven marketers finally rule the roost and to say most organizations are doing more with less would be a herculean understatement. Mostly because the real marketing has been taken out of the hands of the real marketers. All the stuff that used to costs millions to implement, broadcast and track is now free and only requires a bit of knowledge and elbow grease. But, I’m not going to get into that. We’ve all heard it before – and to hear once again how Google, or even the Web for that matter, have changed the world, would be a waste of time (photo by Alby Space).

One point does stick in my mind, however. The content that is being generated today for marketers, by marketers is also a far cry from even 3-5 years ago. Today, we’ve all caught up in the “how”. The tactics. The tips and the tricks that are a means to an end. SEO tips, WordPress plug-ins and link building strategies have taken center stage, in my opinion, and it’s all gotten a bit – well, clinical, antiseptic and lacking in strategy.

What happened to creating great products for real people? Exceeding customer expectation, and creating advocates for you brand? In the Web 2.0 world of user generated content, we have just created ‘more’ rather than ‘better’ marketing.

We’ve created a 14 cup coffee maker and called it revolutionary. But, it’s still the same old coffee – just more of it.