How many Angels on a Pin or Messages on a M&M?

I want my M&M's my way. The coupon came in the Sunday paper today and I can get my M&Ms personalized. Also, I don't need New York Times or Evening News with Katie Couric or MSNBC.com. I have my RSS feeds so my information is delivered, filtered and focused the way I want it. And my cellphone is my life. I call who I want, get no solicitors and V-Cast gives me music, videos, email and news.

To paraphrase e.e. cummings: How do you like your blue-eyed blue now, Mr. Marketer. Emerging technologies and the delivery of media continue to spell Mr. Death for mass marketers.

The irony is that TV networks still charge ever higher rates for declining viewerships because they still aggregate larger groups than the other less trackable, less aggregated modes of communication.

However, like the elegant empty posturing in Agnolo Bronzino's 1569 mannerist painting of The Martyrdom of Saint Lorzeno, guess what? You're still going to die.

The challenge continues to be marketers, media mavens and technical inventors to develop the research tools and approaches necessary to identify trends and understand and meet the needs of their consumers.

Consumer goods manufacturers get this. They recognize the need to identify true consumer insights that will let them adapt exisiting products and develop new products to meet the needs of their consumers and to grow their businesses.

If technical inventors and the media communicators can come together and develop new research approaches, learn to mine and convert consumer insights into tools and message, then they will reduce confusion, competing formats, fragmented tools and messages and provide efficient, focused, relevant and motivating media.

Saint Augustine asked how many angels can dance on the pin? In a world of nanotechnology, the answer is infinite but the question is if the messages are hitting home. Really, it should be as simple as personalizing your M&M.