Marketing in the New Conversational Age

A Mediabistro Social Media Boot Camp Webinar session Summer, 2011

Part 1 What has Happened?

Decade of Disruption• Social Media upended all institutions• Conversations replaced broadcast• World got flatter• Gate keepers flattened

• Mob becomes crowd• SM is everyday toolset• From skunkworks to process• Markets as conversations

Conversational Age Emerges

Part 2 How we got here

Fire Starters of Conversational Age

The 50s: Lies & Losses

Rock beats Marriage

The 60s: Crowd Power

From the 70s-90s

• The Ascent of Geeks• From commune to startup• World peace. Fails• PC & Web Succeed

Causes for Disruption• Distrust of institutions• Contempt for marketing messages• Frustrated by shouting at TV • Tools of recourse

Part 3 Marketing’s Full Circle

Greek Marketplace

Marketplace Conversations

Local Shop Succombs…

… To Big Blocks

2000 Years of Slow Change• Face-to-face • Word-of-mouth reputation• Localization > gentrification• Personal > general• Dialog > monologue

Then 10 Years of Disruption• Conversation scales• Control erodes• ‘Eyeballs’ grow humans• Institution adapt or die• People move to center of org chart

Part 4 The Customer-centric Enterprise

Customer at the Center

• Lou Gerstner at IBM: ‘Don’t ask me’• SAP Communities ‘We’ll stay’• Self-support• Reduce time-to-market• Bands of Champions

Lou Gerstner at IBM

• ‘Don’t ask me’• Decide closest to customers• Tech to build community

Scott Cook at Intuit‘A brand is no longer what we tell consumers it is. It’s what they tell us it is.’

SAP: ‘We’re Staying• 2 million in communities• Part of ecosystem• $80 billion ecosystem• SAP Hosts business• Bands of champions

From Dell Hell to Listen & Respond

Confidential and Proprietary. © 2010 Bazaarvoice, Inc.

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Kraft & Cutting Remarks

Confidential and Proprietary. © 2010 Bazaarvoice, Inc.

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L.L.Bean’s Itchy Twitchy Feeling

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Customer-centric advantages

• Improved products & services• Faster response to problems• Reduced time-to-market• Improve loyalty• Increase profits

Confidential and Proprietary. © 2010 Bazaarvoice, Inc.

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Marketer’s Changing Role

Broadcast Era

• Send Messages• Control• Customer as target• Make people want

Conversation Age

• Talk, listen, respond• Engage• Customer as heart• Serve people’s wants

Shel Israelshelisrael1@gmail.com

@ShelIsraelGlobalNeighbourhoods.net