Marketing

Originally posted 2004-10-27 10:00:48

My three-year-old daughter looked me in the eye a few weeks ago and announced, \”Dad, I’m switching to Geico.\” Geico, for those who are unfamiliar, is a car insurance company in the US. They run a fairly aggressive marketing campaign (TV and radio) using a gecko as a mascot, and they claim you’ll save 15% or more on your car insurance by switching to Geico.

That was good for a chuckle, and I’m sure the Geico marketing folks would be pleased to know of their mindshare penetration (albeit by an audience unable to avail themselves of Geico’s services). I recently read Eric Sink’s review of The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, and it interested me enough to buy the book. Reading it interested me enough to buy some more books by this author, including The Origin of Brands. After reading a few books, I felt like I was reading redundancies, but I still found the subject fascinating.

Part of me wonders if I ought to be preparing for a second career. Though the economy continues to rebound, and offshoring projects continue to fail with some degree of regularity, I can’t help but think my days as a software developer are numbered. Companies will continue to offshore projects, and their success rates will increase. Corporate suits view developers increasingly as commodities. Besides, corporate development consists almost entirely of taking data from a database and putting it on a web page. Whoop-dee-do. The challenge and thrill left long ago.

Anyone else with the same premonitions? What are you doing to prepare for your next career?

By the way, no, she didn’t switch to Geico (nor did I), and a few days ago she announced, with equal gravity, \”Dad, when I grow up I’m going to be a wild elephant.\” Maybe I should become a zookeeper.