Back to the Cracker Barrel

After a long period of skepticism about the South Lake Union streetcar line, I had a major change of heart the first time I actually saw the three streetcars parked in their barn, awaiting their inauguaral run. What won me over — and actually shocked me — was the fact that they had NO ADS on them! Although they were a far cry from the picturesque old Seattle Waterfront Streetcar, they pleased me with their sleek modern lines, fun colors and, most of all, a feeling of PURITY and singleness of purpose that I could only attibute to their not being rolling billboards.

I am an enthusiastic proponent of public transportation, and yet I grimace almost every time a Seattle city bus rolls into sight, because it forces me to contemplate some giant, univited advertising message.

Mitch Joel points out that the Advertising Era is but a tiny “blip in the history of the world,” but from my perspective it feels like it has been around for a very long time. Looking at photos of cities in 1900, with billboards and placards crowding every wall and public conveyance, I feel like little has changed, except that advertising has found ways to seep ever deeper into the crevices of our lives.

In her book “No Logo,” Naomi Kline quotes an anonymous advertising executive who said that consumers “are like roaches – you spray them and spray them and they get immune after a while.” Thus the advertising industy’s need to concoct stronger roach sprays all the time. I hope that Joel is right in suggesting that social media and Web 2.0 may break the established cycles of marketing and usher in a new era of commerce. My eyes are stinging from all that roach spray.

If new media can bring us back to an era when commerce was conducted by people interacting with each other, I will be very happy. I am leery, however, of the possibility that new media will only bring us more pervasive and insidious forms of marketing in the guise of person-to-person interaction.

I love the ability to shop on the Internet, read customer reviews of products and research products by visiting chat rooms and technology blogs. And yet, not long ago, I completely abandoned the Internet when it comes to buying one type of product that is important to me: audio gear. After several bad experiences buying microphones and adaptors that looked great but turned out to be completely wrong for me, I discovered that there is an actual store for professional audio gear, called Pacific Pro Audio, tucked away in the fifth floor of an obscure office building in Queen Anne.

Going in there for the first time, I was shocked to discover a little gang of audio experts, surrounded by all sorts of gear, who were ready to sit down with me and discuss my needs, ask me questions and then pull something out of a drawer or a catalog that was exactly what I wanted. Even if the item only cost $5, they treated me with as much courtesy and interest as if I were buying the most expensive thing they offered.

Going in there now, I feel as if I’m visiting an old time general store, leaning against the counter and chatting with the store keeper, then watching him as he pulls something out of a cracker barrel for me to sample. He never gives me a sales pitch, never pressures me to get on their mailing list or join their club and never offers to “supersize” my order. He just shares his expertise and gets me what I need.

I LOVE DOING BUSINESS THIS WAY! I love it so much that I grab every opportunity to buy something at Pacific Pro, and I reccomend the store enthusiatically to my friends and clients. I consider it a personal mission to bring this company as much business as I can, in hopes that it will never dry up and blow away.

I’m hoping someone will find this blog post in a Google Search and share it with others, starting a little viral marketing campaign. Maybe someone in another business will read this and realize that they ought to be doing business like Pacific Pro. Maybe what I’m doing right now is exactly what Mitch Joel is talking about. If social media and Web 2.0 can bring back some of the best aspects of commerce in the pre-marketing era — the days of the cracker barrel — well, then I think we’ll really be getting somewhere.