Posted on January 18, 2007
The Cycle of Choice - Supernovas and Black Holes
BY JAMES CLARK
In Seth Godin's post The Cycle of Choice he had a great visual representation of how markets are busted open by innovators, then followed by a fade.
One look at this graph and I thought it looks like a Black Hole - where a bright star (Burton, Apple, Ford) attracts customers, runs out of fuel, reaches the end of its life, collapses into itself then explodes out sending its customers and ideas into every corner of the market.
So maybe marketing follows the laws of science. There's a bright new star in the industry that attracts customer at an astounding rate gaining tremendous mass, but eventually the fuel it lives on (innovation, authenticity, flexibility, customer loyalty) runs out and market forces (competition, customer service, cost of growth) cause instability that leads to a collapse and Supernova explosion.
What you have is death by success, and in this scenario the death of star is a Supernova - exploding everything out into the market creating new solar systems and new stars.
"The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Startdust and the Spiders From Mars"
