I stumbled upon this interesting speech from Mr. Purple Cow himself, Seth Godin. He combines the elements of his various books: “All Marketers are Liars,” “Purple Cow,” “Meatball Sundae” and his latest book, “Tribes,” into a single 1 hour speech which he gave at the Business of Software conference last year in Boston.
He makes some very interesting points about building connections between people within the product itself. As a conversational marketing strategist, I naturally find this very relevant because, the majority of time, both products and retail experiences constantly fail to create opportunities to connect customers to customers; almost as if their marketing directors are afraid of having customers talk to each other.
But this thinking is akin to sticking one’s head in the sand, because customers ARE having these conversations everyday in forums, blogs and twitter streams, mostly without the brand’s participation. So here’s the rub, marketing directors either need to accept this fact and adjust their product, approach and ideally their entire business structure, or continue to struggle in a world that will become increasingly hostile.
Doesn’t seem much like a choice to me, but it still amazes me how many consultants and marketers alike think that old ways of doing business – make a website, buy a print, radio or TV ad – will draw people in to buy and do business. What they don’t see is that the main reason people are probably still doing business with their brands is because of:
a) previously good personal experiences,
b) lack of choice
c) Word of Mouth from other customers
and NOT from overpriced ads.
There are far more cost-efficient ways of doing business today. But it does mean accepting that change has happened and that it’s time to embrace new options. And Seth gives plenty of cases in point.
