social media and reading a few blogs, do you charge your marketing department with developing viral video content – pronto?

If you answered “yes” to either or both of these questions, you’ve clearly sipped too much GMOOT-spiked Kool-Aid.

GMOOT stands for “Get Me One of Those.” Scott Donaton of Advertising Age coined the term in discussing marketers’ attempts to exploit consumer-generated content by adopting a knee-jerk response rather than investigating the landscape before jumping in.

“It’s a phenomenon that helps explain why there are so many lousy viral videos and half-assed new-media initiatives out there,” Donaton wrote. “They’re not the end result of a real strategy, but are done for the sake of doing something because . . . well, because everyone else is.”

Retailers are equally as guilty of falling victim to GMOOT syndrome; they try to get in the game quickly because a rival company is doing something, or because some expert has deemed a new gizmo a “must have.” With precious little time to study all the angles, however, hasty entry into some new marketing initiative or technology rarely amounts to more than dabbling.

A little over a year ago, STORES wrote about retailers racing to set up storefronts in the virtual world of Second Life. With high expectations and a strong desire to be on the bleeding edge of cool, several retail companies created digital versions of their stores and their products – then waited for the excitement to start. They’re still waiting.

Say what you will about Second Life, but retailers are partially to blame. They would never open a physical store, then sit back and wait for shoppers to show up. Yet that’s what they did in the virtual world: There are storefronts on Second Life that are not staffed; merchandise is not updated. It’s as if they created these virtual shops and then abandoned them.

Now the GMOOT Syndrome is infecting the mobile arena. True, a few tests have found that mobile media consumption habits are building, but that doesn’t mean that every Tom, Dick and Harry with a widget to sell should embrace mobile advertising. Still, agencies are reporting that virtually every client they speak with expresses a GMOOT attitude.

Leading edge is for some retailers some of the time, but in most instances falling victim to the GMOOT syndrome can be painful. A measured approach to new technology that affords one the chance to dive into something whole-heartedly is likely to yield better results.