It's all about Tupperware(tm)
On Sunday, I spent an afternoon talking with Om Malik of GigaOm, Matt Mullenweg of Wordpress and Stanislav Shalunov of shlang about Social data and Facebook and monetization of data and Google and data ownership and data portability.
You know, nothing topical ;-).
One of the insights for me, from this discussion, was that monetizing Facebook social connections i.e spamming your friends to sell them something, was a model that's at least 40+ years old. In the past it was the "tupperware party" model.
The model behind "tupperware parties" was that friends were invited over to a party and then they all admired the Tupperware(tm) - which was plastic kitchenware. You focused on getting orders before the party was over, sold stuff to your friends and bootstrapped your business that way, hoping to convert some of them to Tupperware distributors.
This was in the era when plastic kitchen stuff was considered cool, because plastic anything was novel. Let that sink in. That's how old this model is.
But the huge difference there was you made real money by selling real stuff.
To quote:-
"This plan has been used primarily to sell items whose main appeal is to women, such as Tupperware itself (a food-storage system), kitchen utensils, home decor items, jewelry, skincare, cosmetics, and similar products; recent additions to the field include lingerie, sex toys and Landmark Education."
With the so called social network ad model - you sell stuff to your friends (oh ok, "get them to install apps"). You piss them off and then you make .... zip, nada, bupkus.
So how long before people catch on that this isn't really about being "social" which means actually connecting with people in a real way. This is like you are in big tent for hosting Tupperware parties. You invite people to meet you at this tent because that's where all the cool people are going to have their parties. And you're going because you are with someone who is following someone else who says it's cool to go to this party.
[According to Stanislav, "the core demographic on Facebook is young women and the guys are there because the women are there." ]
And the women and the guys all come over and then after the party's over, prematurely, they get solicited for Tupperware, relentlessly, endlessly, crassly.
And eventually people in the tent start muttering to each other that this is not what they expected when they first got there. And that it was all so much fun meeting new people and connecting with old friends until it all became about Tupperware. And they all move on to the next tent where it's about, oh does it matter ... Chipperware, or something equally ludicrous and plastic.
So how long before the muttering starts. I'll give it two years max. Or else the tent folds up because not enough Tupperware gets sold and they can't pay the rent and the people who bought the Tupperware to sell it now are stuck with ... well plastic social stuff that no one considers cool any more.
I know I am probably in the minority but have you been to a Tupperware party - a real one - lately? Make that ever? Don't you think if selling stuff at social events was something that people loved, it would have been around for a little longer than a few years?
And just because it's over the web somehow people are supposed to develop a taste for buying plastic at parties?
Perhaps the wizards behind the curtain are forgetting that the entities on the other side of the Innertube are real people and that people move on from fake stuff and long for real stuff.
Ok, so call me a curmudgeon, I've been called worse. Just don't sell me stuff pretending to make it a party. After all wasn't this social media thing supposed to be about "the conversation" in the first place?
.. because you know maybe people prefer organic social stuff, that doesn't abuse the social, you know, environment - let's call it "green social". Something that people can grow in their neighborhoods and you can actually talk in person to the farmer at the farmers market. And what's the equivalent of that for social networks?
Once the Tupperware party in the sky is over, let's have a real conversation where no one is selling anything. Like Om said at the end of the post where he announced the mini-meetup on Sunday - "I will buy coffee and cakes, but please don’t pitch me your company. I want some honesty about this topic."
It was a refreshing conversation and I'd like to have more of those where people aren't selling plastic social.
You know, nothing topical ;-).
One of the insights for me, from this discussion, was that monetizing Facebook social connections i.e spamming your friends to sell them something, was a model that's at least 40+ years old. In the past it was the "tupperware party" model.
The model behind "tupperware parties" was that friends were invited over to a party and then they all admired the Tupperware(tm) - which was plastic kitchenware. You focused on getting orders before the party was over, sold stuff to your friends and bootstrapped your business that way, hoping to convert some of them to Tupperware distributors.
This was in the era when plastic kitchen stuff was considered cool, because plastic anything was novel. Let that sink in. That's how old this model is.
But the huge difference there was you made real money by selling real stuff.
To quote:-
"This plan has been used primarily to sell items whose main appeal is to women, such as Tupperware itself (a food-storage system), kitchen utensils, home decor items, jewelry, skincare, cosmetics, and similar products; recent additions to the field include lingerie, sex toys and Landmark Education."
With the so called social network ad model - you sell stuff to your friends (oh ok, "get them to install apps"). You piss them off and then you make .... zip, nada, bupkus.
So how long before people catch on that this isn't really about being "social" which means actually connecting with people in a real way. This is like you are in big tent for hosting Tupperware parties. You invite people to meet you at this tent because that's where all the cool people are going to have their parties. And you're going because you are with someone who is following someone else who says it's cool to go to this party.
[According to Stanislav, "the core demographic on Facebook is young women and the guys are there because the women are there." ]
And the women and the guys all come over and then after the party's over, prematurely, they get solicited for Tupperware, relentlessly, endlessly, crassly.
And eventually people in the tent start muttering to each other that this is not what they expected when they first got there. And that it was all so much fun meeting new people and connecting with old friends until it all became about Tupperware. And they all move on to the next tent where it's about, oh does it matter ... Chipperware, or something equally ludicrous and plastic.
So how long before the muttering starts. I'll give it two years max. Or else the tent folds up because not enough Tupperware gets sold and they can't pay the rent and the people who bought the Tupperware to sell it now are stuck with ... well plastic social stuff that no one considers cool any more.
I know I am probably in the minority but have you been to a Tupperware party - a real one - lately? Make that ever? Don't you think if selling stuff at social events was something that people loved, it would have been around for a little longer than a few years?
And just because it's over the web somehow people are supposed to develop a taste for buying plastic at parties?
Perhaps the wizards behind the curtain are forgetting that the entities on the other side of the Innertube are real people and that people move on from fake stuff and long for real stuff.
Ok, so call me a curmudgeon, I've been called worse. Just don't sell me stuff pretending to make it a party. After all wasn't this social media thing supposed to be about "the conversation" in the first place?
.. because you know maybe people prefer organic social stuff, that doesn't abuse the social, you know, environment - let's call it "green social". Something that people can grow in their neighborhoods and you can actually talk in person to the farmer at the farmers market. And what's the equivalent of that for social networks?
Once the Tupperware party in the sky is over, let's have a real conversation where no one is selling anything. Like Om said at the end of the post where he announced the mini-meetup on Sunday - "I will buy coffee and cakes, but please don’t pitch me your company. I want some honesty about this topic."
It was a refreshing conversation and I'd like to have more of those where people aren't selling plastic social.
posted by Nitin at 5:32 PM
3 Comments:
"Don't you think if selling stuff at social events was something that people loved, it would have been around for a little longer than a few years?"
I guess you're not living in the suburbs - my wife gets invites for just that kind of party at least three or four times a year... sometimes more often. This is a hugely popular model not only still in use but thriving. Pampered Chef, Mary Kay, Longaberger, the list goes on.
Check this out: http://entertaining.about.com/cs/partygames/a/tupperwareparty.htm
Hi mturro,
Thanks for the insightful comment.
While I do live in the burbs I live in the S.F Bay Areq which is not your typical any kind of place.
The key for me is not how many invites does she get but how many does she attend? And how much stuff does she buy that way and how often?
So yes I guess I should say, that the model is quite successful overall but the demographic is the one conducive to "social selling".
I guess my point is it's not a universal model for parties and it certainly doesn
't make sense that everyone is convinced it's the best thing since sliced bread.
It's been around for a long time and it has a well established demographic that appears to be validated by Stanislavs's comment.
So the rest of us not conducive to Tupperware parties are likely to move on soon enough. Perhaps Facebook will go back to being hugely successful amongst college students who find it a great way to connect. How many will still be using it when their friends start pushing phone minutes or credit cards remains to be seen.
Thanks again.
This blog entry at Found Read (How to Work a Twitter Party, http://gigaom.com/2008/05/16/networking-how-to-work-a-twitter-party/)
just hit a nerve with me and touches on some of your point. Overthinking and talking about monetizing social networking (and it is usually not mutual) kills the vibrancy of this form of communication. And once it stops being fun, people will realize how much of their time it is consuming and it will be seen as a burden. What was exciting (connecting with friends and strangers with similar interests) becomes a chore.
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