As marketers we often assume that the whole world works in the same way as in our own little bubble. No one wants brochures any more. AI search is bypassing Google as a search engine. No one watches linear TV today. Right? No, totally wrong. And really dangerous biases if you want to work with marketing in an effective way.
The classic quote about Venus vs New Jersey comes from Bob Hoffman, author of The Ad Contrarian. Bob is very critical to many hyped things. Things that will change our behaviour, but it will take longer time than we think.
Take linear TV as an example. Yes, streaming passed in May 2025 with 44.8% of TV viewership compared with the 44.2% for linear. This means that linear still covers roughly 50% of the market even if it’s nearly 20 years since Netflix started streaming.
In 2024, Google saw more than 5 trillion searches, or about 14 billion per day, giving it a 93.57% market share. ChatGPT saw an estimated 37.5 million search-like prompts per day, giving it a 0.25% market share. That’s less than Microsoft Bing (4.10%) and Yahoo (1.35%). The number of Google searches grew with 21.64% in 2024, ie it will take time before AI searches closes in if ever.
The examples above are not meant to say ”new is bad”. On the contrary, but all needs to be put into context and used in the right way. It all comes down to understanding the market and what makes people decide. I quote a LinkedIn post from Mats Georgson, one of the leading Swedish brand and marketing experts, with a story worth considering.
“This story is about selling fridges. This was twenty years ago, and fridges were a commodified, stagnant thing for the most part. Some had started adding invention, like climate zones, LCD windows, and screens, others the vivid design like Smeg. New opportunities for differentiation.
But then the market was, amongst others, India. Where a surprising find was that a former state company, low tech, clumsy fridge brand was selling really well. By being cheap, maybe? Nope. Even a tad more expensive.
See, it turned out that there was at this time a lot of families who were climbing out of poverty into a more comfortable existence. Often the first priority for them in the hot Indian climate would be a fridge – an enormous, once in a lifetime investment. Not for the kitchen, but a centerpiece in the living room for all the guests to see!
And then I realized the dynamic. You see, for most of us reliability on a fridge is a point of parity. We assume they all last a decade or so. But for these families, they loved the steampunk reliability of the dated tech with a probable astronomical lifespan.
How many fridges have you owned in your life? I can’t count them.
But for them, it was a different purchase. Where design, lifestyle, innovation and any other claim would basically be irrelevant in relation to ugly but dependable.”
If you want to discuss communication that creates staggering business, just reach out to ulf.vanselius@comprend.com