Get Down with the People

Today I participated in a meeting with a group of senior marketers from one of the largest global companies in the world. At one point the exec who convened the team asked me point blank, "Steve, what's the most important thing we need to do as marketers in this new world?" My answer? "Get down with the people."

The time for analysis is over. Cluetrain is no longer a concept. It's reality. Consumers are forming their own "mecosystems." They're fusing matter from all corners of the consumer-generated and traditional media universes into a solar system that revolves solely around them. With this shift, the best way to persuade is now to engage with them one-on-one as individuals, not as demographics, targets or markets.

Thankfully this is top of mind among marketers. Stuart Elliott says that engagement was the theme of the day at this week's Advertising Research Foundation conference. Consumers are turning away from media and, instead, tuning into each other. So engagement is the buzzword of this new era. The problem is marketers are looking at engagement in a very one-sided way.

Engagement is not just about how to get more consumers interacting and bonding with you. It's also about you creating ways for individuals to meet and engage with each other in a house that you built. It's about coalescing communities, as another exec told me last week. It's about forging a deeper relationship with small groups, rather than superficial ties with larger ones.

The problem here, however, is that this is very difficult for marketers to swallow. We've been trained in going after big numbers; the PR hit in the Wall Street Journal, the ad on the Super Bowl. We like hitting consumers over the head so they remember a message. These days are waning and it's changing the economics of marketing. Some are even saying getting a marketing MBA will work against you today. That's a big change, folks.

Marketing is evolving. It's now more about creating a deeper relationship with the few, or even the one. This is good for all of us involved. Still, I am concerned that more marketers are concerned with forging a deeper relationship with consumers than helping them do so with each other. The companies that can bring together communities and get then out of the way are the ones that are going to be the most successful in this new world.

Technorati Tags: advertising, engagement

Comments

[Mike]

The head of a major (but not the top) online game publisher in the Philippines keeps saying "we need more MBAs".

Note that the online gaming market is highly community-driven. I guess that's why they're not on top.

[Graham English]

How can you help foster a "mecosystem" with a blog? Is it to use a comments subscription option like cocomment? That way readers can track and participate in the blog's conversations. But it still seems like you would have to educate them first. Any specific ideas or examples?

[Martina]

Basically the idea is to provide people with a space where they can interact with each other while being exposed to a brand.

I think the key point is, even for big brands, to start by thinking small. And then grow with the help of consumers. If it small but it's good, it will grow (hopefully ;-)

[kenondemand]

All of this makes sense - the economics of marketing are changing, we need new skills, etc. The question is: when does this really affect the mainstream? Blogging remains the preserve of a small % of the population. Most people still don't even know what it is. How many companies are really using successful, blog-centric, or viral campaigns on a regular/sustained basis? Not many, I would wager - how could they if most people don't read 'em? I think this will take time.

[Mack Collier]

"The companies that can bring together communities and get then out of the way are the ones that are going to be the most successful in this new world."

I keep hearing that we need to 'get out of the way' of the consumer. I don't think that's it. I think we need to be SMART enough to anticipate the path that the consumer will take, and then get out in front of them and clear that path for them. The consumer will reach their destination regardless of whether or not we help them, but we can make the journey easier.

It's all about anticipating behavior, giving the consumer what they want/need before even they realize that they want/need it. And granted consumers are very fickle, so the way to minimize your chances of clearing the wrong path is to interact with the consumer(as you suggest), and get to know them as intimately as they will let you. This lowers your chances of missing the mark, and as you accurately predict and satisfy their needs/want, a trust is developed, and the consumer will lower their defenses, letting you know even more about them, which means you can better anticipate their needs, and a cycle is created.

[eternity]

quoting Martina
"If it small but it's good, it will grow (hopefully ;-)"

It will grow with sound decisions, LONG-TERM targets, and good Community Manager. That's one of my secrets in establishing communities.

I agree with these articles. Our CEO told me face-to-face "that's why we want MBAs", I thought to myself, "that's why I have more Communities than your company because IM NOT AN MBA!!"

Well...

[Mike]

@eternity: We're not talking about the same guy, are we? ;)

[greg]

Finally got around to reading the AdAge piece and the methodology of the study seems pretty shabby. Part of the problem may be the story which tells us 32 companies responded. But how many execs are we talking about? What's the relative size of the over/under performers? Easier to get big percentage sales growth from smaller companies, right? Not nearly enough information in this story to be drawing conclusions like MBAs are "worthless." So out-performers had other kinds of Masters? What kinds? Perhaps people with advanced degrees in philosophy make the best marketers. Wouldn't you love to know? The story doesn't say. And, no, I don't have an MBA. But I do so hate silly, "studies show" stories.

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi Steve and visitors to the Micropersuasion blogsite

Very good brief posting on a very broad theme. The concept of digitally connected communities hit the mainstream last April 4 with the cover story of Economist, and the June 20 cover story in Business Week. Harvard Business Review and the rest all followed.

What is amazing is how bold statements the early periodicals made. Business Week said community behaviour was the biggest change since the Industrial Age. Consider this. Since that time we've had the impacts of electricity, telephones, cars, radio and TV, credit cards, computers, the internet and mobile phones. Yet community behaviour is a bigger change than all of these?

The Economist - a periodical certainly not prone to hype - put it this dramatically in the editorial to the cover story: Those businesses that do not learn to engage with communities, will not SURVIVE. I've read the Economist religiously since 1975 and never have I seen them say something threatens the survival of all business enterprises. But communities apparently do.

So yes, I agree absolutely with your posting. Now two quick plugs. The only business book to cover this phenomenon - and expressly how it affects marketing - is my fourth book, Communities Dominate Brands, that I wrote with Alan Moore, already into its second printing and being translated into four languages. The book was selected as one of the best marketing books of 2005 by the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing.

And if you'd like to read specific examples of how you engage with customers, please visit the blogsite for our book, at www.communities-dominate.blogs.com. We celebrate engagement marketing successes, report on mistakes in enraging communities, and track the related technology developments from digital TV to cellphones.

We'd love to engage with you there, with Alan Moore.

Tomi T Ahonen
four-time bestselling author and consultant
founding member Forum Oxford, the Engagement Alliance and Carnival of the Mobilists
website www.tomiahonen.com

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi Steve and visitors to the Micropersuasion blogsite

Very good brief posting on a very broad theme. The concept of digitally connected communities hit the mainstream last April 4 with the cover story of Economist, and the June 20 cover story in Business Week. Harvard Business Review and the rest all followed.

What is amazing is how bold statements the early periodicals made. Business Week said community behaviour was the biggest change since the Industrial Age. Consider this. Since that time we've had the impacts of electricity, telephones, cars, radio and TV, credit cards, computers, the internet and mobile phones. Yet community behaviour is a bigger change than all of these?

The Economist - a periodical certainly not prone to hype - put it this dramatically in the editorial to the cover story: Those businesses that do not learn to engage with communities, will not SURVIVE. I've read the Economist religiously since 1975 and never have I seen them say something threatens the survival of all business enterprises. But communities apparently do.

So yes, I agree absolutely with your posting. Now two quick plugs. The only business book to cover this phenomenon - and expressly how it affects marketing - is my fourth book, Communities Dominate Brands, that I wrote with Alan Moore, already into its second printing and being translated into four languages. The book was selected as one of the best marketing books of 2005 by the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing.

And if you'd like to read specific examples of how you engage with customers, please visit the blogsite for our book, at www.communities-dominate.blogs.com. We celebrate engagement marketing successes, report on mistakes in enraging communities, and track the related technology developments from digital TV to cellphones.

We'd love to engage with you there, with Alan Moore.

Tomi T Ahonen
four-time bestselling author and consultant
founding member Forum Oxford, the Engagement Alliance and Carnival of the Mobilists
website www.tomiahonen.com