Those of you who remember your former science classes might recall the term "entropy."  Entropy is basically the tendency for accumulations of matter to gradually "split-off" into higher quantities of smaller matter.  I never really found a real-world application for this concept until I recently applied it to the world of marketing.

There has probably never been a time in world history when an entire population could fit into just one marketing segment.  We have always had differences among us that have warrented message targeting.  However, doesn't it seem like the persaonlization efforts of recent years have created a case for a higher quantity of smaller segments?  Electronic analytics allow us to understand our audience(s) with much more sophistication than our predecessors.  It is no longer enough for us to consider rudimentary differences like geography, age, gender and other simple demographics.  Now, we are able to consider behavioral information and custom definitions in our targeting, and our customers are asking for more and more personalized experiences.  These factors allow me to make an accurate analogy between physical entropy and "social entropy."

Personalization is slowly turning everyone into a non-conformer.  For example, music is a major part of my life (pun intended...I was a music major in college).  I have a broad taste in music that encompasses many different genres; thus, my Yahoo Launchcast Radio has become one of my favorite online services.  (Launchcast allows you to rank artists, albums and songs as they are played and it "learns" your preferences in order to customize a playlist with personal recommendations for each user.)  Launchcast is not foolproof, but it's heads and tails above anything on an AM or FM radio.  I also find it to be superior to my iTunes...why should I physically own, manage and store tens of thousands of songs when I can let Yahoo intelligently own, manage and store millions of songs for me?  Also, twelve months of Launchcast service is about as expensive as buying three CD's (I promise I don't work for Yahoo!).

My taste in music is not completely unlike my fiancee's taste in music.  We've been to quite a few concerts together.  However, as my personalized Launchcast radio gets "smarter and smarter," I have become less and less patient with my fiancee's choice of music when we are together.  The super-personalization that I have grown accustomed to is turning me into a radio-snob.  I want my experience and no one else's.  And vice-versa...she can only listen to my station for a short while before one of my top-ranked songs proves to be at the bottom of her list.

What will happen as we continue to cater to each member of our target market?  Will we all become impatiently difficult customers?  Also, is this an ever-continuing trend?  Will we eventually have tens or hundreds of segments to consider in our marketing mix?

I believe that personalization is, indeed, an irreversable trend.  Our next youngest generation may never know what untargeted blanket marketing is.  Dog owners may never see a cat food commercial.  College students may never get another unsolicited email fromk a Viagara retailer.  And jazz-lovers may never know about the upcoming rock concert in town.

Online marketers already have a wide array of tools to help them rise to the "personalization occastion."  I believe that they will be able to become more sophisticated over time.  However, the barrier to emarketing entry will become larger with these increased expectations, and educational and business leaders will need to become more effective at "herding cats."  It will be interesting, to say the least!