chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in Let Them MAKE Cake

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

youtube downloader — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 03:56:57 -0000

When your media feels too complete, people don’t feel like they’re participating. More than anything, this is a note to myself.

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

porno izle — Sat, 22 May 2010 07:21:02 -0000

You are so right. I own a bakery and indeed, people want to be involved in putting it together.

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

Karen19 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:58:41 -0000

Very good... thanks for the nice metaphor.

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

hiking — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 03:22:55 -0000

Chris - excellent snapshot

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

Steph Cakes — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:21:57 -0000

You are so right. I own a bakery and indeed, people want to be involved in putting it together...eggs and all! Good thinking. Keep going!

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

Ross Hill — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:16:57 -0000

Regardless of the specific history, I think this is a fantastic metaphor.

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

Mark Harrison — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:45:22 -0000

Chris,

I think this analogy needs a bit of work, I'm afraid.

A generation previously, cake-mix had appealed to those who wanted "time saving"... because it was quicker than just starting with a bunch of ingredients (in the way their mothers [and I use the gender-specific language with 99% accuracy if you look at cakes baked in the 1950].)

... by the time the incident you described happened, it was READY-MADE cakes that were the convenience-led mass market buy.

Cakemix had changed its positioning to the segment who wanted a "cake-making experience" rather than the people who wanted a cake. It was no longer about being the quick way to have a cake... it was about those who wanted to feel involved.

Most people didn't want to feel involved - they just wanted the sugar rush that came with EATING the cake rather than a close personal relationship with the cake-maker.

Where the manufacturers of cake-mix were failing was that they were still thinking in terms of the OLD niche - but were so close to the product that they thought "how do we make cake-making easier" rather than "how do we make cake-getting easier."

And that, in a nutshell, is one of the hard points of Web 2.0....

.... there are SOME who want to get involved, and help bake the cake...

... there are many more who want a quick cake fix, and have no interest in baking whatsoever.

Web2.0 seems to assume that the world is full of cake-bakers.

I guess that the interesting point is that, it would turn out, that some of the amateur cake-bakers (bloggers, say) have ended up making more popular cakes (blogs) than the so-called professional chefs (journalists.)

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

Mari Smith — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 01:38:21 -0000

Hey Chris - I was excited to read this short post (well, the cake pic reeled me in. Ha ha.)

I'm guessing you've seen the incredible BBC series "Century of Self" that reveals the work of Edward Bernays (Freud's nephew). It was indeed Betty Crocker that introduced instant cake mix as a convenience food in the early '50s, but it wasn't until consumers were instructed to add an egg that sales resumed. Yep, participation is key!!

See:
http://video.google.com/vid...
at min 21:49 if you're interested!

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

Darren Daz Cox — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:33:27 -0000

excellent!!!!

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

chrisbrogan — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:26:32 -0000

There are sort of two points in one here. One is that people like to feel wanted. Doing something makes people feel wanted. The other point is that by buttoning up your media too tightly, people don't have anything to add, no participation.

The reason movies (and books) have "entry characters," those characters that give us a perspective of this all being new and gee whiz (Think Harry Potter as the new non-muggle on the block), is so that YOU, as reader, can feel part of this new world and participate in it.

Thus, if we lift that premise, our media needs to have the same feel.

Make sense?

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

Keren Dagan — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:26:23 -0000

Beautiful analogy. When it comes to baking for me even adding watter is a chalange:)
Keren

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

CT Moore — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:47:48 -0000

Your point about media, I think, is bang on. The cake analogy, however, might be a bit of a stretch. I suspect that it has to do with consumers/bakers feeling that a mix that requires actual ingredients would produce a higher quality result.

But media: yes, there's a better ROI when it's participatory.

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

Beth Kanter — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:46:47 -0000

Thank you for the excellent metaphor about how to encourage participation.

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

Meg — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:58:41 -0000

Very nice.

Re: Let Them MAKE Cake

Joanna Paterson — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:44:12 -0000

Chris, this is a brilliant summary and illustration of what this stuff's all about!

Joanna

PS Don't be too hard on yourself - you are blazing a trail for the rest of us, don't forget