Change

I just started reading "The World is Flat" last night and was struck by this quote by David Schlesinger, who heads Reuters America:

"Change is hard. Change is hardest on those caught by surprise. Change is hardest on those who have difficulty changing too. But change is natural; change is not new; change is important."

I opened with a very similar thought in my presentation last week at the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) symposium at the ALA conference (go here for a very short synopsis). Wow, talk about an industry that's about to get hit with a sea change... and of course it's already started. I had the idea that Netflix, not Google, might be libraries' greatest competitor;  Netflix taught the world that we don't need to leave our homes, drive to physical locations where what we want might not be on the shelves, or pay late fees. I got an email the next day with a link to BooksFree --  the Netflix model applied to books. I also received  a link to a post on E-Ink,

"...the world's largest flexible organic active matrix display. The displays measure 10 inches diagonally and are laminated with E Ink Imaging Film making them .4 mm thick. This material conveys a similar appearance as printed ink-on paper and can be contorted and rolled without damage. Power is required only when an image is being updated, and is held indefinitely. Plastic electronics are forecast to be a $250 billion USD industry by 2025, including electronic newspapers, roll-up monitors, and other innovations."

As much as I love books, how cool will it be to download 100+ books into a single reader interface that reads and feels like paper and allows us to annotate, search and send snippets to others? Talk about disruptive technology.

Yesterday I spoke at Tulsa's Business Marketing Association about how the grassroots economy and social technologies like blogs, wiks and forums are impacting businesses today.  Fundamental human needs (connecting, learning, contributing), combined with new technology advances, are creating a fundamental shift in our society.

One of my favorite posts over the past two years is titled Blogging and the Singularity. If you're not familiar with the Singularity, it's the point when societal, scientific and economic change is so fast we cannot imagine what will happen from our present perspective. The idea is based on the premise that the rate of change is exponential, not linear; the rate of change in the past is a snail's pace compared to what we'll see in the next 10, 20, 50 years.

"Change is hardest on those who have difficulty changing too."

Humans don't like change. We hunker down in our comfort zones and don't see change until it hits us over the head... and at that point it's usually too late. I just finished reading "Seeing What's Next: How Theories of Innovation Predict Industry Change" by Clayton Christensen. If you've never read anything by Clayton, I encourage you to do so. (He also wrote The Innovator's Dilemma and the Innovator's Solution.) His fundamental premise on industry disruption is one that, IMHO, every business person should be familiar with.

How current are you with fundamental consumer and technology trends? With the tenets of the grassroots economy such as co-creation, transparency and customer/employee empowerment? With the opportunities among underserved or unserved customers that cry out for disruptive innovation?

None of us should be in any business but the change business. We must not only keep up with the facts of change, but also (and perhaps more importantly) release  our death-grip on the way things are right now. It's completely futile.  Is your business structured for flexibility and change? Are you?

Tulsa BMA today

If you work in Tulsa, I'll be speaking at the Tulsa BMA meeting today. Join us!

Ad blog battle

This is cool... I managed to make it into the Battle of the Ad Blogs even though my blog has been rather dark lately. Of course, it's way down at the bottom in the "other" category, but hey, I can't complain. If you like what you read, I'd love to win one of these. Always a nominee, never a winner... boo hoo... :-)  I promise to post some really, really interesting content very soon!

Interview with Sam Decker

I had a nice email chat with the always-insightful Sam Decker this weekend. He's just left Dell to join Bazaarvoice, a word-of-mouth start-up based in Austin, Tx. And like any respectable word-of-mouth marketer, he turned to blogs (like mine) to get the word out.

Q. How does Bazaarvoice encourage word of mouth? Is it just viral email campaigns, or do you consult with businesses to make them more talk-worthy?

A. Our company and full solution details are still in 'stealth mode', but I can say we provide managed technology, services and analysis to put word of mouth on eCommerce web sites. We don't do buzz or viral campaigns. We're 100% focused on putting a system in place that enables customer conversations about our clients' products. Which we think is the 'bullseye' of word of mouth.

Q. How do you track results?

A. Since the customer conversations occur on the client's web site, they can monitor activity and correlate it to web analytics, customer information, and financial data. We have live clients and they are seeing higher conversion and average order value. We also believe there are benefits in customer satisfaction, loyalty, and reduced returns.

Q. Companies that offer a great experience naturally get word of mouth. Companies who aren't being talked about probably aren't all that interesting. So wouldn't a word of mouth campaign backfire unless it was done for a company that doesn't need it?

A. You're absolutely right. Great companies naturally get word of mouth. By putting a system in place to enable and encourage customers talking, they will accelerate even faster. Companies that have 'opportunities' can also benefit from word of mouth because by integrating the customer voice closer to the brand, within their customer experience, then word of mouth is now part of operations. It's the most tangible form of feedback and its visibility necessitates attention and improvement. Keep in mind there are companies that carry many products. An online retailer is a perfect example, which carries products that are great and not so great. It is in their best interest to let the natural selection of word of mouth help the best products succeed. 

Q. What kind of companies are you looking to work with?

A. Our first clients, and most obvious, are online retailers and service providers. Our system can work for any industry vertical. For the reason you mention above, the next best clients are online manufacturers that are confident in their products, company and employees. As you say, great companies naturally get word of mouth. Our solution helps customers build their business.

Q. Why Bazaarvoice? Might there be confusion with 'bizarre' when heard & not seen?

A. Ah...you're the first to ask, but probably not the last. Bazaarvoice means 'voice of the marketplace'. The meaning was inspired by Cluetrain Manifesto (see Chapter 4 ). Bazaars were the earliest forms of markets, where customer-to-customer conversations influenced what was bought and sold. By bringing the voice into today's open, online marketplace we believe companies will win. And, yes, there is a double meaning. Many companies will find it 'bizarre' to put customers in charge, making their opinions and voice part of their brand. Cluetrain was written in 1999, and it seems just now companies are starting to wake up to its idea. By the way, bizarrevoice.com will redirect to our site. See the full story of our name on our web site.

If you want to comment on this subject, I'm sure Sam will be happy to join the fray. If you're interested in Bazaarvoice's services for your company, you can contact Sam directly at sam @ bazaarvoice dot com.

Wanted

I'm getting a lot busier these days and am looking for some good freelance help in the following areas:

(UPDATE: Please, if you do not specialize in the following areas, do not respond. This is not an open invitation for anyone related to marketing to send me their information!)

1. Qualitative researcher with a good strategic mind. Better yet, a brand strategy consultant who does his/her own research. (US-based) I am looking for someone trained in qualitative research, interviewing, moderation... a big plus would be ethnography.

2. Project manager (creative): This person should have an agency background as an AE or account supervisor,  be excruciatingly organized, proactive, and have great writing skills and client-interaction skills. (US-based) This is a more junior level position;  it doesn't pay a whole lot.

3. Web designer (can be anywhere in the world). You would not believe the pain and agony I've gone through to find a good web designer... someone who not only does great work, but is also not a flake, doesn't cancel in mid-project,  and doesn't miss deadlines. There are a million web designers in this world; please don't respond unless you have personally designed some really crisp national-brand sites and you understand usability. Flash programming a plus. You should have less than 5 people in your company.

You can send resumes and portfolio samples (for #3) to me at jrice@mantrabrand.com. I will call you if I'm interested; please don't call or email me after you've sent in your qualifications. If you're a good enough marketer, your qualifications will sell you. Thanks!

UPDATE: Also, I really need an Excel guru... someone to download quantitative survey results and built a ton of charts.

what do you think?

Wow, three posts in one day; I'm on a roll!
I'm writing a presentation about brand experience, and one of the key components is great customer service. Can anyone give me an example of a nationally recognized company that's well-known for customer service other than Nordstrom's? All the examples that come to my mind are smaller, local establishments or high-end luxury brands. Every good customer experience that I've had with a mass-market national brand has been due to an exceptional individual who had a high service ethic, not due to the company's focus on service.

Blog welcome & thoughts

Everyone say hi to new branding blogger Mark True. To paraphrase his first post, "does the world really need another branding blog?" In his case, I think so. He wrote a really insightful comment on one of my recent posts and I clicked through to see what he was all about. Only a week's worth of posts up right now, but I found some smart, well-written stuff.

For those of you who are looking to promote your blog, follow Mark's example. Write something really smart on a like-minded blog. If they like your comment, they'll click through and read more. Blogging is the perfect real-world example of how branding and marketing works: it's not about promotion, it's about the experience. If you offer a smart, insightful blog that's well-written, people will come. If you're promoting and people aren't coming, then you're either 1) pissing them off with your email promotions, and/or 2) you're not writing what people want to read. Or you're not writing well enough and your posts are difficult to read.

Unfortunately there are people out there who would make it seem like blogging is easy. Sure it is, unless you actually want someone to read it. Then it's hard. It's why I don't post very often; it takes a lot of time to sit down and think of something smart to say, organize your thoughts, write it well, edit it so it's readable, add the links and post. This is not a 15-minute exercise.

Last comment: I think it's a fallacy that "you must post at least 3 times per week." If you're a news-oriented blog, it's a must. But if you're writing original content that people want to read, write when you're inspired. People won't abandon you; that's the beauty of RSS. But when you're first starting out, you do need to populate your blog with enough content that people want to subscribe. And it takes time to post smart comments on other people's blog to get noticed in the first place. You can start easing up when you've got enough inbound links to get the Google Juice flowing.

Update

Sorry I haven't written much lately, but I am working on a couple really interesting projects that I know will spawn numerous blog posts. The first is a rather large brand strategy project for @Last Software, a company that makes a super-easy 3D design tool and epitomizes the emerging grassroots culture of openness and co-creation. Great group of folks.

The second is a presentation I'm giving at the American Library Association's Midwinter Symposium later this month. It's sponsored by the Online Computer Library Center, which consists of a bunch of really smart people looking to push libraries into the 21st century. You can find their blog here. Have you really thought about what would happen to libraries in the Google Age? I bet you (like me) haven't thought about libraries at all. What an interesting challenge; how do we rebrand and reinvent libraries to maintain their relevance?

For this conference I'm writing an entirely new presentation based on major social trends and how they are impacting brand development. In a few days I'll start posting each trend, and I'm hopeful we'll get a good conversation going. Stay tuned!