I just read Maschmeyer’s latest post analyzing the very interesting and spirited discussion happening around Bruce Nussbaum’s post on Transformation as 2009’s key idea.
Lee concludes his post by talking about a shift that has been brought about by the networked economy:
It’s increasingly becoming a reality that companies no longer make and/or deliver value. They FACILITATE it. This is a huge leap in business models, customer relationships, marketing and the generally accepted concepts there-in.
One of the early and obvious manifestations around this for business can be seen in most of social media best practice cases. The success stories are almost always based around facilitation.
There are lots of different manifestations of this:
- Creating a platform to allow people to make their voice heard and influence the brand
- Giving people a chance to contribute to product design and development
- Allowing people to customize and personalize products
- Connecting like-minds together and supporting their goals
- Providing exposure and promotion
- Providing unique content and tools to energize and enable creators
It’s a wholly different type of marketing, and it’s not news to anybody who’s read marketing news over the last few years. But despite all the talk and hype and early experimentation, it definitely feels like we’re still at the tip of the iceberg as to what’s really possible.
As if to punctuate that point, the next article I read in my RSS stream was from Ed Cotton at Influx Insights, who points us to Landshare.
Landshare is a web-based service that connects people who want to grow their own food with people who have land to grow it on. It’s a simple but powerful idea that is made for our times, the best kind of idea.
I’ll echo Ed’s words here: “It’s a great example of a big idea that a brand or agency could have got behind and created. Instead of mere talk, this is all about action and change that could make a difference.”
And he’s right. For all the talk about branded utilities and social media and new ways of marketing, there’s still precious few success stories about how companies have used the revolution in communications and in networks to truly help create value for their consumers.
But the point is we’re trying, we’re knocking on the door. And it feels to me like 2009 could be the break out year where it all comes together and we see some real breakthroughs, where marketing starts to clearly take a new, more positive role in creating value for brands and people alike.
Although many companies will simply focus on sales to stay alive, some will have the luxury and foresight to look at how to take advantage of the unprecedented change our networked world has brought to how people interact with each other and build on that to transform the nature of their category entirely.
As the adage goes, “in chaos lies opportunity”.
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Hi Geoff,
Nice collection of examples. You’re right: We’re very much at the tip of the ice berg. The “make and deliver” paradigm that companies and ad agencies live in is hard to step out of.
The tough part is that “Creating value for customers” is not what most company employees care about. You know what the number one criteria at Coke for receiving a promotion is? “Sell more Coke.” People are rewarded for moving product. And, because that is their yardstick, that will be all they care about. This is a fine view, after all companies have to sell products, but focusing on “more of my product in the customer’s hands,” often blinds people to a greater goal that can, if reached or attempted, will lead to more sales. (IMHO, in many situations, not all, i think “sell more of the product,” is a red herring goal.) Until more corporate leaders focus their employees on and reward them for creating “real customer value,” and not “just moving product”, these ideas of facilitation will meet much hesitation and skepticism.
Like you, I hope this year will be step in the right direction.
great post geoff. i really believe that a year from now we’ll have a lot more examples than the amazing ones you list here
d
Hey guys, thanks for the comments.
Leland, I think you’re right about the goal being “sell more coke”, that’s hasn’t changed. But in the past you sold more coke through advertising.
Traditional advertising as the sole or primary means of achieving sales of products is a model that is increasingly looking fundamentally broken, and so the question becomes what you replace it with?
If you can make the argument that the things of value that you create for your customers give you a competitive advantage, by growing your customer base, deepening relationships, influencing purchase decisions, etc, then you can make the case that you influence sales. So you are supporting the ultimate goal of selling coke, you are just doing it in a different way than by spamming people with awareness-based messaging.
I agree it’s going to take some time, but I believe this year is going to be a step in the right direction, regardless of the economy. People will find inventive ways to create influence, and that will make news. And as Dino says, that’ll give us a whole new set of examples to list. Doesn’t hurt to try anyway
Cheers,
-g
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