When Did Listening Become Hard?

Mashable is great. No argument. Pure wealth of knowledge, but with the new wave of 'listening to the consumer' still washing over us, I am always taken aback when I feel like we talk about it as if it's a burden or some new practice. In a recent post they gave us 9 apps for gathering customer feedback. All well and great, but the language around it always surprises me:

their input and suggestions can help you make more sound business decisions. Further, encouraging customer feedback can also lead to better business relationships and stronger customer retention.

It's no slight on Mashable, it's simply sad that we've devolved to the point where we can say, with a straight face that 'feedback can also lead to better business relationships.' Simple fact - feedback, open discourse on all levels internally and externally, the most critical cog in the machine of innovation and fundamental to success.

Rather than thinking of apps and consumer-monitoring dashboards, we should be looking at models like Ideo and their Open Ideo crowd-sourcing-solution-finding network. Simply put - less tools, more organic listening and more collaboration. Maybe we're just thinking too hard?

Instead of Starting to Do It Right, Let's Stop Doing it Wrong

I was listening to an interview with a retail manager at Macy's on NPR's Marketplace on my way home last week. They were discussing their new marketing strategy, which was in essence – listening to consumers, tracking what they purchased and holding events that were customized to the local demographic. Or, in other words, "looking for other ways to stand out...retailers are tailoring products to local shoppers."

In short, this particular Macy's had started to think and act like a community member instead of a mega corp. Fine and good, but what strikes me as odd is that we're talking about this strategy as if it's something new. If large corporations are just thinking of this strategy now (despite the fact that companies have been doing this for ages, not to mention the fact that the web is founded on customization) then...well shit, I'm at a loss for words.

It's time we, as consumers, demand more and we, as brand partners, help clients understand that the brand experience goes beyond logo and brand personality. It needs to be integrated into all facets of the business model from sourcing to web functionality to business process to how easy it is to open a package.

One Size Fits All Brand Strategy.

Name it Awesome.

Spill Your Guts: Strategy & Intuition...Sitting in a Tree...

In a meeting earlier today, while discussing strategic direction for start-ups, someone chimed in "let's not plan to the point of perfection and sacrifice actually getting something done." It made me stop, smile, and remember that some of the greatest strategy is guided straight by the gut, influenced by opinion and cemented with passion.

I don't want to sit here pontificating on the reasons why this is the case; and sure enough, this is nothing new...the same "don't ignore your gut" advice is in every book on planning. However, at the end of the day, a strategy is only as good as its execution. And that's one huge advantage of a direction that the team is emotionally invested in...it's a hell of a lot easier to get excited about sound strategy built on sweat and love than reams of quantitative and piles of binary. Which begs the question, how good are you at selling the "unromantic."

The Advertising Challenge & Johnny Cash's One Piece at a Time

I'm rereading Jon Steel's Truth, Lies & Advertising. In the opening chapter he addresses the ever-persistent rift between effectiveness and efficiency. Efficiency, Steel explains is "doing something the right way" and effectiveness is "doing the right thing." A narrow minded, intense focus on "the right way" leads to the wrong results. In other words, if we're too focused on checking the boxes, we're likely to miss the intangible that make things work beautifully.

It's a forest through the trees thing and his point reminds me of the challenges agencies and brands are facing today. Looking down briefs, processes and project requirements, too often we're hitting check boxes blindly in an effort to meet productivity goals and get a project out the door. The effect, as Steel writes, is a tightly manicured, but misguided product

In my own view, the advertising industry too often preaches effectiveness while actually pursuing efficiency, transforming...a real world of difficult decisions and uncertain evidence into a comfortingly simplified one where indicies of performance are hard facts...

A friend sent me this video this morning, and I couldn't help but draw the parallel. And as I wrote this...Johnny Cash came to mind. In both cases all the pieces are there, the boxes are checked...so we've got efficiency covered...how about effectiveness?

Harvard Tea: Brand Micro-culture...or Synchronisity?

I made a mistake today when I was on Harvard's campus. While at the university's bookstore, I saw a POS display promoting "Well Red" tea from Republic of Tea. Guessing the tea company was nodding to the Harvard Crimson, I thought "shit, that's smart...make a tea blend specifically for a stressed-out audience and tap into their demonstrated enthusiasm. Way to integrate yourselves and way to think of a small audience with potential huge payoff..." But I was wrong...the "red" in "Well Red" is a line of tea using the red tea roobios as its main ingredient.

Despite the mistake, the idea is born from brand association/sponsorship that has been around for ages from toys in Happy Meals to product placement (Audi anyone?)...brands have always been looking for the right opportunity to integrate themselves into their audiences' lives.

It's almost cliche to say it, but with the increased clutter/competition brands face in the market and an audience that is ever distracted, integration is more important than ever. However, in my truly humble "bloggy" quick opinion, I'd argue there's potential for brands to do a better job with their partnerships.

What struck me about my make believe Republic of Tea/Harvard partnership was that a) tea is a perfect product for stressed out college students b) it was an inventive use of red tea and c) it was an example of brand micro-culture, which, in essence is why we love the web. It was the long tail theory in practice in the corporeal world - as if someone was saying "you like tea, you like Harvard, there's a product for you." It's that type of intimate, close to personalized connection, that once made relationships between brands and consumers so great (way back before mass production) and the web has made so great again. Just sayin'....

Have an example? Share it.

Paradigm Shifting & Brand Cultures

During this morning's reading I came across little description of paradigm shifts via Erik Du Plessis in The Advertised Mind. Some of my favorite lines follow

• A paradigm shift derives from a discovery in one field, but a major shift affects other fields as well...
• Many people cling to the old paradigm even after it is clear that the new one is a better fit with experience...
• When there is a shift to a new paradigm previous knowledge makes more sense...
  

We are in the midst of a full fledged paradigm shift. The sinewy threads of the World Wide Web have connected folks previously stranded on an island of their peculiar interests (both personal and brand related). There are communities for everything. It's a cross section of celebrating individuality and a threat of homogeneity as we all discover that we're not that unique.

One implication, that we've written about before and continue to be enthralled with, is the effect of transparency and the aggregation of information. The Internet has reinforced our natural desire to build and interact with cultures, not just objects or products. And that is a clear paradigm shift. We're all recognizing the impact of our purchase decisions and that a purchase supports more than a product, it supports an entire brand culture.

More than ever, brands need to understand they are a culture and that a consumer's purchase is an investment into that culture. Likewise, as consumers evolve they will need to understand the power of their purchase. With the web making transparency and sharing easier and easier, we can expect to see some exciting changes and advancements in conscientious consumption and consumer communities.