It was a beautiful fall day here in Seattle this past Saturday. And even though I was going to meet someone 8 blocks away, I made a point of going to the Occupy Seattle protest to see what it was all about. And even though I’m more sympathetic than not to many of the issues the protesters are talking about, it still took an extra internal push for me to actually walk down there.
Such is the nature of our behavior today, in marketing and in life: Online action is easy. Offline action is harder.
Think of the recent online outrage over Bank of America’s plan to increase debit card fees and Netflix’s plans to raise prices.
How many people will turn their ire into action, and actually cancel their Bank of America or Netflix accounts? I know you can cancel a Netflix account online; I’m not sure if you can switch banks entirely online. But I’m willing to bet that if you had to physically go somewhere to cancel your Netflix account, a lot fewer people would do it.
It’s the subject of my new column on Talent Zoo, which will be on the home page tomorrow.
