Market me happy

If you're reading this column, then chances are you are a prime demographic, and I've just tapped into the nirvana of corporate marketeering. Your hopes and dreams, insecurities and fears, they are all worth millions -- not to you, but in the boardroom. Companies, big and small, are reading your blogs and reviewing your MySpace accounts. They're even setting up pages of their own. Do you like product X? Well, then you're gonna love product Y! \nFor the little guys, it's politely termed guerilla advertising, and it's a way of getting maximum exposure on a minimal budget. \nAccording to TransWorld Business, skate shops like FTC, The Denver Shop and Sun Diego all have profiles on MySpace.com. Not too long ago, a pillow company searching for Internet junkies to pimp their products as part of a low-budget blog campaign courted me. \n"Oh, these pillows are soooo soft and fluffy!" It didn't convince me either, but for products in the hot end of the trendy spectrum, it works. \nFor the big players, the idea has a more insidious name -- viral marketing. It's the same thing, but on a bigger scale -- a way of serenading an audience without it recognizing the lyrics are a jingle. The Internet is accounting for an increasingly large share of marketing revenue, and companies want you on their buddy lists. They want to hear your thoughts, see your projects and get your input on their brands. Why wouldn't they? Communication like that not only provides free insight into the wants of consumers, but also builds brand loyalty. Wouldn't you rather buy your corrugated aluminum products from a company with a heart? \nOnline interactivity is a hit. Magazines like Business 2.0 are raving about the potential. There are online instructionals and promotion firms preaching the merits of MySpace to marketers wishing to realize the site's full advertising potential. Products are moving online, camouflaged in a cutting-edge cloak of urban hipness.\nThen there are sites like Pandora.com. On the surface, it's a novel idea. According to the Web site, a bunch of musicians "set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level." So, you type in the name of a band you like, and Pandora pumps out a series of songs with comparable chromosomes. It sounds like a great way of finding music by bands you might otherwise have never heard of. \nStill, the idea somehow falls flat. Type in a somewhat off-kilter band name, like the Melvins, a band that Allmusic.com says characterizes the "slow, sludgy sounds of Black Sabbath," and Pandora starts playing the "bright" and "energetic" 311. Sure, the two bands share "minor key tonality," but a term like that gives only the faintest of insights into the soul of a song. \nIt comes as no surprise that Pandora is sponsored by iTunes and Amazon. All of the red flags are there. The Web site proclaims that it was created to be your friendly, personal DJ, ready to engage you in a musical conversation ... once you register. There's even a blog to subscribe to, and according to the site's FAQ, it will be "ramping up" advertising soon. It might be just the thing, if you chart out your favorite bands according to the top-10 hits, but people wanting that indefinable sense of musical "purity" are better off just tuning into WFIU.