The War at Home: Marketing Opportunities in an Era of Terrorism
The War at Home: Marketing Opportunities in an Era of Terrorism
The choice of targets says a lot about the kind of war America is now involved in. This is a new kind of war, and the demands on American business will be significantly different than in World War II. Then, the nation's entire business community focused on one objective, winning the war by mass-producing the weapons of war. This time the volume of weapons produced won't be a determining factor in the war's outcome. Victory may ultimately just be maintaining the American lifestyle.
Unfortunately, maintaining life and business as usual despite terrorist attacks won't be easy. The United States has an infrastructure that is particularly vulnerable to terrorism for two reasons; it is highly centralized, and it is largely unprotected.
Ever since the industrial revolution began, there's been a trend towards centralization of factories and utilities. The economies of scale dictated that it was more profitable to build one big steel plant than several smaller ones. Later, centralization was encouraged for other reasons.
During the Cold War, the United States and Russia maintained peace essentially by holding each other's citizens hostage under the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). Neither side would attack the other because doing so would trigger a deadly counter strike, capable of largely ending life as we know it. Any attempt by either side to bomb-proof or decentralize its homeland infrastructure would have been interpreted as a sign it was preparing to launch a first strike, and the other side would have had no choice but to launch a pre-emptive attack. (This is the reason why the Internal Revenue Service never allowed homeowners to deduct the expense of building a fallout shelter. Doing so would have increased the likelihood of the very war that the fallout shelters were designed to protect people against.)
Unfortunately, the centralization mandated by the MAD policy is exactly the worse kind of infrastructure to have in an era of terrorism. To survive now, Americans need to decentralize the infrastructures that produce the goods and services they depend on, especially in the area of public utilities.
For instance, most city water plants have little security, and present very tempting targets for attack with bio-chemical weapons. At the same time, few American homes have any significant stockpile of drinking water. In the current climate, it would make sense for each American residence to have a long-term backup water supply (30 days or more), and if they could afford it, the ability to detect and filter out bio-chemical agents from whatever water they were supplied with.
A basic system would simply be able to detect bio-chemical agents in the public water supply and automatically switch to the reserve tank before any contaminated water entered the building's plumbing. A more advanced system would be able to filter out contaminants to provide an uninterrupted water supply. In terms of boosting the economy, every ten million homes that bought a $100 basic system would add one billion to the GDP.
Given the threat of airborne bio-chemical weapons, it would be nice to be able to seal off private and public buildings from the outside air completely, and only allow "safe" air into the buildings. This wouldn't be much of a problem for many high-rise office buildings, but it might take a redesign of the American home to make it work there. This is another new market that could add billions to the GDP, and provide the additional economic benefit of protecting workers from natural airborne irritants like pollen and mold.
Attacks on the power grid are another strong possibility, so back-up power supplies for the home and office will be increasingly common. A back-up power supply industry could add billions to the economy. It could also significantly lower the cost of electricity by allowing homes and businesses to charge their batteries when electricity was the cheapest to produce, and run off them during periods of peak use. Common use of long term back-up power supplies would also make local economies less vulnerable to natural disasters like hurricanes, and especially blizzards, where loss of power can be life threatening.
Other vulnerable areas include communications systems, mass transit, and of course agricultural production, just to name a few. For decades we've become increasingly dependent on a very complex system to support our average daily life. We've taken it for granted, grown complacent, and our enemies have noticed.
The efforts to make American life terrorist-resistant, if not terrorist-proof, are just beginning. It will cost billions, but it will make America a far stronger nation. These efforts will also make America far less susceptible to natural disasters.
For America to survive in the years ahead, American businesses will have to provide the American public with the products and services needed to continue normal life despite terrorist attacks. The Internet will be an ideal medium to inform the public of new technologies that will make their life safer, and sustainable, and we'll need them.
We are moving into an era with many aspects of the Cold War, but none of the relative security. This time the destruction isn't just on television, it's outside our windows. Winning this war won't be like winning wars in the past, but we do have the resources to win, if we can protect them, and use them properly.
If American business is up to the task, this war can be made to fuel the economy, rather than allowed to destroy it. We are at war with someone who is targeting the source of our prosperity, and to win we must produce prosperity in the same overwhelming quantity that we produced weapons in during WWII. Exporting some of our surplus prosperity to the third world might go a long way to ending the support of extremists there. It would also reduce the envy behind much of our present danger, making the world a much safer place. Theft may be the sincerest form of envy, but wanton destruction is the most dangerous.
The War at Home Marketing Opportunities in an Era of Terrorism - To learn more about this author, visit Glen Morris's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
The terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. mark the beginning of a new era for marketing and advertising. The closest comparable event in American history is Pearl Harbor, but there are some critical differences. Unlike Pearl Harbor, American business was the primary target this time, not American military facilities.
The choice of targets says a lot about the kind of war America is now involved in. This is a new kind of war, and the demands on American business will be significantly different than in World War II. Then, the nation's entire business community focused on one objective, winning the war by mass-producing the weapons of war. This time the volume of weapons produced won't be a determining factor in the war's outcome. Victory may ultimately just be maintaining the American lifestyle.
Unfortunately, maintaining life and business as usual despite terrorist attacks won't be easy. The United States has an infrastructure that is particularly vulnerable to terrorism for two reasons; it is highly centralized, and it is largely unprotected.
Ever since the industrial revolution began, there's been a trend towards centralization of factories and utilities. The economies of scale dictated that it was more profitable to build one big steel plant than several smaller ones. Later, centralization was encouraged for other reasons.
During the Cold War, the United States and Russia maintained peace essentially by holding each other's citizens hostage under the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). Neither side would attack the other because doing so would trigger a deadly counter strike, capable of largely ending life as we know it. Any attempt by either side to bomb-proof or decentralize its homeland infrastructure would have been interpreted as a sign it was preparing to launch a first strike, and the other side would have had no choice but to launch a pre-emptive attack. (This is the reason why the Internal Revenue Service never allowed homeowners to deduct the expense of building a fallout shelter. Doing so would have increased the likelihood of the very war that the fallout shelters were designed to protect people against.)
Unfortunately, the centralization mandated by the MAD policy is exactly the worse kind of infrastructure to have in an era of terrorism. To survive now, Americans need to decentralize the infrastructures that produce the goods and services they depend on, especially in the area of public utilities.
For instance, most city water plants have little security, and present very tempting targets for attack with bio-chemical weapons. At the same time, few American homes have any significant stockpile of drinking water. In the current climate, it would make sense for each American residence to have a long-term backup water supply (30 days or more), and if they could afford it, the ability to detect and filter out bio-chemical agents from whatever water they were supplied with.
A basic system would simply be able to detect bio-chemical agents in the public water supply and automatically switch to the reserve tank before any contaminated water entered the building's plumbing. A more advanced system would be able to filter out contaminants to provide an uninterrupted water supply. In terms of boosting the economy, every ten million homes that bought a $100 basic system would add one billion to the GDP.
Given the threat of airborne bio-chemical weapons, it would be nice to be able to seal off private and public buildings from the outside air completely, and only allow "safe" air into the buildings. This wouldn't be much of a problem for many high-rise office buildings, but it might take a redesign of the American home to make it work there. This is another new market that could add billions to the GDP, and provide the additional economic benefit of protecting workers from natural airborne irritants like pollen and mold.
Attacks on the power grid are another strong possibility, so back-up power supplies for the home and office will be increasingly common. A back-up power supply industry could add billions to the economy. It could also significantly lower the cost of electricity by allowing homes and businesses to charge their batteries when electricity was the cheapest to produce, and run off them during periods of peak use. Common use of long term back-up power supplies would also make local economies less vulnerable to natural disasters like hurricanes, and especially blizzards, where loss of power can be life threatening.
Other vulnerable areas include communications systems, mass transit, and of course agricultural production, just to name a few. For decades we've become increasingly dependent on a very complex system to support our average daily life. We've taken it for granted, grown complacent, and our enemies have noticed.
The efforts to make American life terrorist-resistant, if not terrorist-proof, are just beginning. It will cost billions, but it will make America a far stronger nation. These efforts will also make America far less susceptible to natural disasters.
For America to survive in the years ahead, American businesses will have to provide the American public with the products and services needed to continue normal life despite terrorist attacks. The Internet will be an ideal medium to inform the public of new technologies that will make their life safer, and sustainable, and we'll need them.
We are moving into an era with many aspects of the Cold War, but none of the relative security. This time the destruction isn't just on television, it's outside our windows. Winning this war won't be like winning wars in the past, but we do have the resources to win, if we can protect them, and use them properly.
If American business is up to the task, this war can be made to fuel the economy, rather than allowed to destroy it. We are at war with someone who is targeting the source of our prosperity, and to win we must produce prosperity in the same overwhelming quantity that we produced weapons in during WWII. Exporting some of our surplus prosperity to the third world might go a long way to ending the support of extremists there. It would also reduce the envy behind much of our present danger, making the world a much safer place. Theft may be the sincerest form of envy, but wanton destruction is the most dangerous.
The War at Home Marketing Opportunities in an Era of Terrorism - To learn more about this author, visit Glen Morris's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
|||
David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
|||
Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
|||
Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
|||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
|||
Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
|||
David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Glen's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
|
||
|
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Networking Online Risk Management Federal and State Laws Networking Challenges Business / Personal Plan |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Marketing Blogs
Top Marketing Blogs of 2009 | |
 |
Top 50 Debt Blogs
Learn To Get Out Of Debt | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
