I wrote a while ago about the power of coincidences, and the danger of the conclusions we draw from them. Just a bit of fun really. But I was reminded of it when reading this article that Jason turned up, which has far more significant things to say about the way we do things.
It looks at the idea of cumulative advantage: the idea that small and often quite random initial occurrences can, over time, be multiplied and turbo-charged by our tendency to like things that other people like, propelling one product, brand, song or whatever to dominance (all a bit like chaos theory really). And that under only slightly different initial conditions something else might end up in pole position.
It features a a rather neat piece of research to demonstrate this effect, based around music downloads. All of which does start to explain some of the more unexpected, and maybe unwarranted (to our minds) success stories we see around us. And, as the article suggests, to undermine the idea that, if we only mirrored what 'they' did, we could enjoy similar success.
Does make you think about the role of marketing. Maybe it should maybe be less about communicating benefits (given how marginal differences can be) and more about communicating/implying popularity...in good Mark Earls fashion.
