December 19, 2004
"and we can break that sausage too"
Doc Searls has some tips on marketing in this new age of ours:
First, pay attention to what customers are actually doing, and actually saying, about your company and your products. There are companies that can help you do this, but you need to do it for yourselves as well. If your company and products are the subject of blog discussion, follow that too. There is bound to be plenty of data available, in time, from companies that mine the blogosphere for historical as well as current information, and who follow "The Live Web" as well as the Wide one.All good advice, as usual, from The Master.
Second, purge the old mass marketing lingo. Forbid the terms "consumer" and "message." The first insults your customers, and the second is something nobody demands. Face it: neither conversation nor relationship are about "messages." I know this makes what we used to call "message development" really hard, but that's too bad. A good clear description — yes, good copy — beats the crap out of a "message" any time.
Third, free up your people to say whatever they want about your company and its products, to whomever they please (as long as it's legal) and to engage with human beings in the marketplace in any way they want. In other words, stop routing sales through Sales and marketing through Marketing. Letting people blog is one way, but there are plenty of other ways, too.
Fourth, bring interested customers into your company. Welcome more than their "input" and "feedback." Become interested in their ideas as well. Any customer interested in getting involved in your company is going to be a highly influential customer as well. This was a big lesson of the last political campaign season here in the U.S. You don't yield leadership from the top, but you accept leadership from what we used to call the bottom (and should now call the front).
Fifth, don't be afraid to go deep...
[CAVEAT:] I get a wee mention (Thanks, Doc!).
Posted by hugh macleod at December 19, 2004 2:58 PM | TrackBack