Conversing With Your Customers
Picture a middle-eastern bazaar on market day maybe in the middle of the eighteenth century. What do you see? People packing the square. Shouting. Cursing. Eying. Ignoring. Touching. Feeling. Negotiating. Settling. Paying. Carrying. Trusting. Not trusting. Knowing. Undecided. Decided. Rich. Poor. Packed. Tight. Close. Smelly. Smoky. Sensual. Nonsense. Cheap. Exquisite. Sunny. Shadowed. Wet. Rainy. Cold. Hot. Safe. Unsafe. Escorted. Unescorted. Free. Enslaved. Story. Sounds. Music. Singing. Horses. Monkeys. Pestering. Quiet.
Now picture a Target on a Saturday afternoon. How many of the adjectives above apply? Some of them just don't fly anymore. People want to be safe. They want a fair deal. Things have changed. Walmart the same way. The center of the retailing universe has become staid. Yes, the end-caps sell. So do the aisles, or, believe me, the items for sale won't remain at Walmart very long. But the experience has changed. Maybe it is a good thing. It might be what we really want.
Doc Searls (Levine, 76) says we really do want the bazaar, and that the bazaar has been re-created on the web. Want to argue? There's a place for you. Same with every one of the adjectives above. Quiet. Unsafe. Smelly. There's an idea.
Searls talks about a marketing assignment for a computer company that had spent years in the dark making their latest product. They wanted to make a big splash at the launch. There was no way. No one was interested. They weren't part of the conversation, and, crucially, the conversation couldn't be created in an instant. My friend Shannon Barnes clued me in to The Cluetrain Manifesto. He does a good job with all the media out there. Twitter. Facebook, I guess. Linkedin, certainly. What's that mean for you? Want to launch a new product or service? Make sure you're part of the conversation (that might even be too simple - be part of the arguments) in today's bazaar, or have a very tough time marketing your new product.
Levine, Rick, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger. The Cluetrain Manifesto. The end of business as usual. Perseus Books. 2000.