Before I get to why I think there are a number of unique opportunities in the adult Internet space right now, please indulge me a bit while I pass on a story of tragically amusing holiday loss. I promise there’s a point to it.About six years back, a good friend of mine was visiting his family for the holidays when something rather unexpected happened to his mother and sister. The two of them had spent the better part of a day making a truly magnificent gingerbread house from scratch. It was the kind of gingerbread house you’d see on the cover of Country Living or some Martha Stewart magazine, complete with hard candy windows, a gumdrop garden, and frosted trim on the roof. A true masterpiece.
The family left the gingerbread house in the kitchen then proceeded to the local grocery store to pick up dinner. When they returned, the gingerbread house was gone. The only sign it ever existed was a few scrap crumbs on the wax paper where the mighty creation once stood. In the corner of the living room lay the family dog, an adventurous little dachshund that was on his side whimpering and moaning while sporting an abnormally large bulge for a belly.
The story to me is an amusing example of how something that can take a long time and a lot of effort to build can be very quickly destroyed. And that’s a lesson that I think a lot of companies in the adult entertainment space probably should keep in mind as the industry heads into difficult economic times with the rest of America. With rumblings that some of the economic hardships might be manifesting themselves overseas as well, it’s more important than ever for business owners and executives to pay close personal attention to the welfare of their companies and brands.
Unfortunately for a lot of adult companies feeling the pinch, the quick fix for tighter budgets is too enticing to pass up. What’s the quick fix? Maybe that means not attending trade shows. Maybe it means fewer funds spent on marketing. Maybe it means letting go that charismatic marketing girl because it’s hard to quantify her value anyway. All of these things will save money now, but all will have consequences that could make things much worse in the near future.
At a time like this, the biggest mistake a company can make it to allow their brand to sink into obscurity. For companies who spent a lot of money building up their brand names through the first years of the 21st Century, or even before that, allowing all that work and expense to evaporate is like shooting yourself in the belly – you may not die right away, but a slow and painful death is almost certain without immediate corrective action. I don’t care how much you did in 2004, if you allow your company brand to back out of view now, thinking you’ll just hunker down while the going is tough, this industry will forget you like you’re yesterday’s news faster than that little dog could eat that enormous gingerbread house.
Yet the decision being make by a lot of better known companies to scale back does have an upside. While one rock-solid brands are slashing marketing efforts, that creates new opportunities for aggressive new companies to make their mark. Where before it was pretty difficult to get attention in a sea of companies all screaming for eyes and ears, now it’s not nearly as difficult to get noticed. While the competition is showing weakness, and scaling back, you can be talking advantage of this trend by showing your strength.
Much to the anguish of social conservatives, Darwin’s brilliant theories on biological competition also apply to the human world of business. It’s natural in business for the complacent to fall back while the hungry and aggressive take away market share with bold marketing moves and fresh vision. That trend is certain to manifest itself in the evolution of the adult entertainment industry in the coming years. The only question now is who will evolve, and who will watch helplessly as their once healthy brands die slowly from the self-inflicted wounds of inaction.
