Weekly
Digest
#20

March 30, 2018

Facebookgate

Trust in Facebook is plummeting after the Cambridge Analytica data breach. It’s come out that the company knew about it years ago, didn’t disclose it, and now users are angry. Facebook recently announced they’ve revised privacy settings to be more accessible and Mark Zuckerberg agreed to testify in front of Congress, but it doesn’t seem like it’s enough.

Among rising frustrations with the social media platform and its leaders, #DeleteFacebook is now trending. Several users even reported that Facebook was logging their calls and texts and mining information from personal emails. That data was later used to serve them ads. For whatever privacy settings we allow (that can enable Facebook to better target ads), monitoring phone activity and emails was never part of the deal.

For now, the big question is: are we moving towards a future without Facebook? On the one hand, video killed the radio star and Facebook killed Myspace, so isn’t there the possibility that something could kill Facebook? And if so, what is that next something? We’ve seen many new apps come along touting they’d be the David to take down this Goliath, but none did. Perhaps shifting consumer sentiments towards social media and information transparency could.

On the other hand, maybe the backlash will die down. If we think about Facebook on a global business scale, it’s true that there are many positive and long-established functions. It provides instant, free, international communication to many who might not have access to it otherwise. It also provides free "websites" for small businesses working with little to no advertising budget, makes e-commerce a reality for artists and makers around the world, and does, at the end of the day, host billions of people’s photos and content for free.

Regardless of which way the penny falls, the response to this scandal likely signals a larger, systemic social shift. Amidst the #metoo movement, anti-gun violence marches and the rise of cryptocurrencies, it’s clear society at large is taking back the power. Perhaps that’s exactly what this Facebook controversy was meant to teach us, that we should be more aware of the personal data we release and how it’s being used.

In the end, we’re all collectively deciding its fate in the decisions we do or don’t make: be prudent about sharing and hypervigilant about privacy settings...or delete?

New Frontiers, New Heights

If you’ve ever studied marketing, surely you’ve heard of the four Ps: product, place, price, and promotion. It’s a pillar of thinking that started in the 1960s and has held up quite well. Though, if we may, it seems we could expand on this thinking to better suit the times. In an age of innovation and constant transformation, brands who create against the “now” are already behind. If consumers are anticipating their needs in the coming weeks and months, brands should be anticipating their needs by years. We call this marketing foresight.

One great example of this? Cannabis marketing. It draws upon the principles of the four Ps, but where it really succeeds is in the timing. There is a growing market of cannabis enthusiasts who recognize that attitudes and acceptance towards the herb will change in the coming years and have chosen to act on it now. They’ve created shops, services, product tiers, and infrastructure catering to current market needs while anticipating the larger cultural shift.

The mere existence of a cannabis brand agency, magazine, cryptocurrency and locally sourced/designer offerings are a testament to the momentum of this movement. Add to that Snoop Dogg’s Uber Eats for weed delivery and Apple finally allowing weed apps on the Apple Store, the shift towards a greener future seems to be closer than ever. Cannabis marketing has definitely called shotgun in the race towards a burgeoning business sector (medicinal, recreational, homeopathy, personal care...etc) and it’s not blowing smoke up anyone’s a** about it.