One of the biggest pitfalls in marketing research and technology today is confusing speed with impact. We strive to do more, be more efficient, and create the next AI company. But we forget some fundamentals.
The Red Queen Hypothesis is a great metaphor for what’s happening in our industry right now. This suggests that when everyone adopts the same tools and optimizes them to achieve the same efficiency, competitive advantage erodes and markets drift toward commodification.
The idea comes from a scene in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass,” where Alice and the Red Queen sprint as fast as they can, only to get nowhere.
Inspired by this passage, evolutionary biologist Leigh Van Valen proposed the Red Queen hypothesis. Simplified, it posits that in an environment where everyone evolves, any given organism must evolve just to survive.
This doesn’t just mean becoming better adapted to your environment. This means remaining competitive with all the other organisms competing for the same resources, even as they evolve.
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Why efficiency is not a good goal for AI marketers
Many companies are taking advantage of current technological developments to focus on efficiency. It’s true that the use of AI can greatly improve efficiency in almost every aspect of our business. We can go faster.
But in doing so, all our competitors will also progress faster. Like the Red Queen, we run and run, without gaining an inch.
How efficiency provides symmetrical gain that leads to commodification
The problem with focusing on efficiency is that it is a symmetrical gain. In other words, it’s open to everyone.
For example, let’s say your business strategy revolves around better and more widespread use of ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. But everyone has access to the same tools and the same approach.
As a result, you run and run, but your competitors will stay with you. You and all those who prioritize efficiency will be caught in a spiral of commodification. Your margins will decrease and the only winners will be the companies you pay to use the tokens.
Neglecting to harness these technologies for efficiency is an even worse proposition. But if your strategy comes down to efficiency, be prepared to fight in the commodities market.
How to make progress with an asymmetrical impact
You have to find a way to have an asymmetrical impact. This means that you must have or know something that your competitors cannot. Rather than thinking about competition, start focusing on disruption.
Let’s say you’ve been selling widgets for 30 years. Instead of working to become the most effective widget seller, think about what will make widgets useless – and how you can make it happen.
How to reframe disruption in the context of loss aversion
Think of disruptions through the lens of loss aversion. Psychologically, people feel more pain from losing something than the joy of gaining it.
But I find it more useful to reverse the equation. As someone who regularly enjoys decluttering my life, I prefer to ask, “If I saw this in a thrift store, would I buy it?” Instead of asking if I want to keep it, I ask if I would want to acquire it in the first place.
What to ask to maximize disruption and impact
More frequently, we need to ask ourselves: If I considered starting this business from scratch today, would I do it? Assuming the answer is “yes”, the next question is: how could I do it, and what do new technologies allow me to do that I couldn’t do back then?
We should focus less on running the business more efficiently and more on scaling it like a startup would. Because if you don’t do it, someone else will.
The questions that define the next phase of marketing growth
These are the tough questions every business needs to ask themselves right now. Those who focus only on efficiency will end up running like the Red Queen and achieving nothing. Those who ask and answer these more difficult questions about disruption will put themselves on a path to asymmetric evolution and impact.
