Micro-Marketing: The Internet Killed the Shopping Mall Principle

They sat there all big and pretty. No… not pretty. Not pretty at all... They sat there all big and ghastly and gray, with their insides soon to take on that ghost-like emptiness found at cemeteries where the flowers had died, and the families had lost interest in the upkeep. Only they, the big, the ghastly, and the gray didn’t know it. Nobody did. Except for a few nerds somewhere, some space, fornicating about the new world to come: that thing we call the internet.

Where convenience lived, compulsion reigned

Black shoes. White shoes. Red shoes. Ruby magic slippers. It had morphed, albeit, unexpectedly, into a life of unquenchable consumerism; a simple click of a screen, an unconscious scroll, a devil-may-care jaunt through what’s hot and what’s—so—not.

Love it? Hate it? Buy it or leave it? Do whatever the heart desires: This is the 21st century, baby Jane. New York. Paris. London. LA. There’s nowhere the modern shopper can’t go, nor peruse.

No new release, no limited luxury, no clearance rack that screams “I can’t believe I found this!” is out of reach.

Why—the modern shopper—is unlike any other. They're pragmatic at heart, emotional by birth, influenced by the tides of the moon, the trends of the day, and fads that never last 'til midnight.

It’s true. 

Slowly, unexpectedly, then suddenly all at once, the internet really did kill the shopping mall.

Mass marketing suuuucks the BIG one

“Microculture marketing” is at the heart of this article: The Internet Killed the Shopping Mall Principle. 

Don’t worry. This isn't a love letter to 1999. Beanie babies. Tamagotchi. Spice Girls. Titanic. Backstreet Boys. Frosted tips. TGIF. Britney-Not-Yet-Cuckoo-Spears.

No. 

In this mass marketing world, in which we scroll and sleep and scream for reprieve, “micro-culture marketing” is the forgotten strategy of the smart and savvy.

The smart and savvy startup marketer, that is.

“Smart,” because said startup marketer has self-awareness to know they can’t win by “playing someone else’s game,” aka, the corporate competitor’s marketing game. “Savvy,” because micro-culture marketing asks for conscious creative, a willingness to “get one’s hands dirty” by adopting anti-traditional methods of advertising.

For context, in my last Stupid For Startups article, we learned about “repeatability.” 

Or what I call The Proof Is in the Parrot Principle. This is where startup marketing programs strive not to replicate the mass reach of traditional competitors. Instead, they aim for “repeatable marketing.” The practice of leveraging words, phrases, or feelings their prospects are already saying or thinking (aka, parroting) about said product or industry. A way to hack memorable marketing messaging. 

When it comes to our micro-culture principle, The Internet Killed the Shopping Mall is about what comes next. It’s about who to build this "repeatable marketing" for.

Before Ebay and Amazon—there was Daniel M Kohn

In 1994, some twenty-one-year-old, not drunk at a college bar somewhere, chasing girls who couldn’t give a crap about em’, was busy building something nobody could give an even bigger crap about.

His name was Daniel M Kohn. His something was NetMarket. 

Most people, because of Ebay and Amazon, don’t know that NetMarket was the first online marketplace. Which is believed to be responsible for the first digitally secure purchase—a Sting CD—which sold for $12.48.

Kohn had called it “a new venture that is the equivalent of a shopping mall in cyberspace.”

Indeed, it was. 

But despite the ambition, only two types of niche audiences found themselves attracted to the unconventional behavior of online shopping. The first? Early-technology adopters. Those few, savvy, ahead of their time individuals who were crazy enough to hand over their credit card number through the glass screen. 

The other audience? A niche audience of people looking for specialized items. Like… say… buying a collector’s item such as a Sting CD for $12.48. Which just so happened to be the niche target audience Ebay moved in on: those rare, cool things you’d be hard-pressed to find at your average neighborhood garage sale.

It’s hard to believe that the internet, now the transcendent sun of today’s mass marketing universe, was once micro-culture marketing. A place where even modern-day Caesar’s whom set out to conquer the capitalist world, began by selling Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (looking at you, Jeffy B).

Today's micro-marketing niches are the mass marketing audiences of tomorrow.

Before Kohn, micro-culture marketing began with the “Michelin Man.” But not the white, puffy, marshmallowy Michelin Man you know today.

The first. The original. The engine-cranking Michelin Man (yes, people had to crank their car to start it once upon a time). The affluent, early-adopter of automotive technology. That son-uv-a-b*tch across the street, who owned steel on rubber wheels years before your great-great-great grandpa probably did.

"The Michelin Guide," as we’ve come to know it, is the rating system awarding only the finest, grandest, most exquisite restaurants in cities the world over. 

But in 1900, when driving a car regularly (or at all) was uncommon consumer behavior—it was the content marketing strategy for a new and innovative product.

Since the French Michelin company sold tires, they needed this very niche audience of car drivers (0.01% of people owned cars) to buy more tires. Which meant they needed drivers to burn more rubber. Which gave new strategy behind Michelin’s marketing: To inspire a lifestyle that did that.

For example, see this old Michelin brand campaign messaging written by a dead guy:

"Countrysides, seasides, merry, merry mountainsides; a life of epicurean rides. Somewhere to go, somewhere to eat and be free, somewhere to drink up the miles of that metallic dream on wheels. There’s no place a Michelin tire cannot go. No path, no road, no glass or nails or “ohh no’s!” So to your dreams, behold, let the Michelin tires drink down the obstacles."

OK, a dead guy didn't write that. I did—in the spirit of the 1900s Michelin campaign. But the goal of this micro-culture marketing messaging was to speak to the ambition of this affluent automobile audience. To turn car driving from sporadical routine—to an identity, an everyday lifestyle where indulgence met independence.

It wasn't until 26 years after the first Michelin Guide, in 1926, that this micro-marketing strategy was broadened to include a bigger audience that was interested in a specific guide for restaurant and dining ratings.

A broadening that couldn't have been accomplished without the awareness, momentum, and growth established from focusing on such a niche audience (your affluent, early-automobile adopters).

The Internet Killed the Shopping Mall Principle

Stupid For Startups: The Internet Killed the Shopping Mall Principle (Micro-marketing)

According to the Stupid For Startups International Marketing Dictionary of Excellence & Sometimes Wizardry—The Internet Killed the Shopping Mall Principle is rooted in micro-culture marketing. But more importantly, the principle frames "micro-culture" not as an end, but simply a starting point on the road to a broader product marketing audience.

The principle is as follows:

• “Startups build awareness through micro-culture marketing that targets niche, early-adopter audiences; however, the most successful don't treat this early-stage targeting as an "end-all" positioning—but simply a "starting point" strategy to acquire the momentum to grow and broaden the customer base."

To put it another way, The Internet Killed the Shopping Mall Principle is about doing what big corporate cats aren't willing to do: sacrifice.

When startups remove themselves from the corporate marketing game, from the mass marketing audiences they can't reach. They allow themselves the opportunity to dedicate their marketing to smaller, underserved micro-cultures that aren't yet profitable or worthy in the eyes of large, corporate competitors.

What are those smaller underserved micro-cultures?

• They're specialized subgroups within society that share similar values, behaviors, and expectations of the world (or a small piece of that world).

• They often sit on the very progressive or very traditional side of the aisle, distinguishing them from our 'more centered' global population.

• They're views tend to be 'too ahead of their time,' or 'too old-fashioned,' making them not a fit for broader corporate marketing programs.

However, this is why micro-cultures tend to be early-adopters of products that aren't ready for mass marketing consumption. Even better, many of these micro-cultures eventually grow into macro-cultures, or mass marketing consumers.

For example, those computers nerds who were 'too ahead of their time' when it came to buying things on the internet, became Ebay's earliest consumers. And whatever other companies that moved to build an E-commerce strategy before it was simply status quo.

But that's what The Internet Killed the Shopping Mall Principle is about: finding value where others do not.

That means taking advantage of micro-cultures and their early-adopter tendencies, and being the one that speaks to their movement. And maybe... one day, your startup will be the leader behind this newest macro-marketing, mass audience.

You just got to put in the early, unexciting work.

Micro-culture marketing example: Heura Foods

"Get back the years you spend studying for this exam," says the Heura truck advert. "A plant-based diet can add up to 10 years to your life expectancy."

Reaching micro-audiences can sometimes require anti-traditional methods of advertising. The kind that traditional corporate competitors won't do because Senior Officer, Ned Cobbledick, in the C-Suite won't approve it.

(Damn you, Ned.)

Heura Foods, however, is a risk-taking, plant-based meat startup brand from Barcelona Spain. And they parked this red yellow truck right in front of the Barcelona medical school during exam day.

By doing this, Heura's hyper-focusing on an extremely specific micro-culture:

• Future doctors who are a like-minded, progressive audience that put health first.

• Future doctors who'll have future patients who'll have future health conditions.

• Future doctors who'll be more likely to think of Heura first in the plant-based meat category.

• Future doctors who may be more likely to suggest Heura to patients in need of a plant-based diet.

I don't have to tell you that this is super brilliant.

This kind of hyper-focusing exemplifies The Internet Killed the Shopping Mall Principle.

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