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	Phil's Blogservations Monday, March 05, 2007 Posted by philgomes 8:10 PM The "Wrong Tail" & The Fallacy Of The Infinite Multitude The "Wrong Tail" & The Fallacy Of The Infinite Multitude Every so often, I get this feeling that since there are supposed to be 70 million blogs worldwide, some folks believe there must be a thriving community of people who are passionately talking about a highly specific product category within a highly specific target demographic. And, out of that slice of the 70 million, there must be at least two dozen blogs written by and for midwestern, Greek-speaking, middle-aged couples who have adopted dyspeptic, polydactyl, twin Samoan infants and are just desperate to buy a carbon-fiber-and-unobtainium tandem stroller to cart them around in. (Household incomes = $120,000+, of course.) As you've heard me say a few times, "I hate to tell you there's no Easter Bunny, but..." I've started calling this the Fallacy Of The Infinite Multitude. It's the mindset that festers when a poorly written executive summary of Chris Anderson's The Long Tail lands on the wrong desk. The result sends marketers on a wild goose chase, fueled by the expectation of femto-communities that will kill for your brand, are just waiting to be "activated" like a sleeper cell, and don't require an investment on the organization's part of an honest community engagement effort in order to be effective. Of course, I'm not saying such communities don't matter. I'm of the opinion that such communities matter very much... when they are, in fact, deemed likely by a reasonable person to actually exist! Call it "chasing 'The Wrong Tail'" perhaps? Frankly, marketers are vulgarizing the "Long Tail" concept to rationalize and justify the existence of products, services, and content that no one really wants to markets that might not really be there. It's like the last few chips in the great Pringles Can Of Marketing: if you stick your hand too far down, you'll get stuck. It's more practical to turn that can upside down. And, sometimes, as Dante said in Clerks, "Sometimes you gotta let the hard-to-reach ones go." Technorati Tags: long tail, research, word of mouth | HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil's demented imagination. Hell, to be perfectly honest, even Phil disagrees with what he thinks sometimes. This site has virtually no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Clicking on a link doesn't automatically send a 1/2-cent donation to UNICEF. You can't buy, sell, auction, swap, find a date, win friends, influence people, cross the chasm, or decode the human genome using this site. You won't get free email. You won't win a free video game console. This site will not end world hunger, foster peace in the Middle East, help you smell better, teach you how to swing dance, or move the global economy from petroleum to hydrogen fuels. You'll learn a lot about this site's master, though, which amounts to a haphazard collection of strange and useless facts that pretty much won't help you at all.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This is the blog of Phil Gomes, SVP with Edelman Digital and senior advisor to the Society for New Communications Research. This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. Phil currently resides in Chicago, IL. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes.com View my page on PROpenMic SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.