Crowdsourcing a market

Utilizing a custom-made crowdsourcing application called Bubbly App, Cooltown Beta Communities is able to build enthusiastic communities around a common vision.

In the industrial age, we’ve been subjected to an economy and culture dependent on mass-produced ‘hits’. Why? Because catering to everyone else wasn’t cost effective. Thus, the economy grew around companies like Wal-Mart, Blockbuster and Microsoft. However, thanks to the information age and the internet, reaching ‘everyone else’ is suddenly cost effective, witness the rise of Amazon, Netflix, Linux and iTunes, where there is something for everyone and participation is open to all.

Check out the chart to the left – the red represents the ‘Big Head’; the hits. The yellow represents the ‘Long Tail‘; everyone and everything else. Notice how the area in the long tail is much larger than in the big head – the sum of many small markets is worth more than a few large markets. That’s your potential market, that’s the long tail of your organization’s audience that’s looking for a way to participate in what you have to offer.

Bubbly provides the tool that will not only provide access to that long tail audience, but will help to establish them as an enthusiastic community committed to the success of your organization by letting them participate in defining what you have to offer.