Life Cycle of Mass Media Technology in B2B Marketing
I was researching the life cycle of mass media and it brought up an interesting notion for us in B2B marketing. Most new media developments spawn out of existing ones; thus, we have to stay up-to-date on every current trend in order to evolve easily into the next one.
Birth: Though some technological milestones may be true innovations, most of them evolve from previous ones that were missing something the public wanted or needed.
Market Penetration: The medium now enters the market, attracts users and begins developing new uses. During this stage it has penetrated 0% to 16% of the market.
Growth: During this stage, the developers and users learn how to use and maximize the capabilities of the medium. At this point it has penetrated 16% to 50% of the market.
Maturation: The new medium now becomes a part of the communications environment. At this stage the medium has penetrated 50% to 90% of the market.
Defensive Resistance: The new medium must evolve in order to keep up with another newer medium on the market. Here its market can decline from 90% to 50%.
Adaptation/Convergence/Obsolescence: At this stage the medium either chooses to adapt to the new situation (such as by adding a new feature), converge into a new medium, or disappear.
As B2B marketers, I think this cycle is very important. If you put any social media network through this cycle, youll get it. And with Facebook purchasing Instagram, we can see the final stages very clearly.
So in addition to being a helpful glimpse at the life cycle of mass media, this is important for us as B2B marketers because it shows us how much we have to stay on top of these things. We have no idea what may come next; all we can do is work with what we have so well be prepared when it does.
