In this weeks reading, from Ben McConnel and Jackie Huba's
Citizen Marketers, the chapter expalains how much power a consumer has with the assistance of Web 2.0. The auther's write about
meme's which I found to be quite interesting becuase it is a powerful tool for consumers. The author's explanition of a meme is:
A cultural transmitter that distinguishes an idea from the brillions of others
that float in a primordial soup of daily human existance.
I think Richard Dawkins camparison of a gene to a meme is very well put, he says: 'Just
as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to
body...memes propogate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to
brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called
imitation...examples of memes are tunes, catchphrases, clothes fashions,
and way of making pots or of building arches.'
These memes are so useful that they caused the break through of "iPod's Dirtly Secret" which was a video posted by a consumer becuase Apple was charging over $250 to fix his rechargable lithiumion battery. Within weeks, the meme was downloaded over a millin times. This meme even traveled via traditional media as the
Washington Post and the
Daily Yomiuri in Japan. This was a consumers meme at work which illustrates the Power of One.
