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Ad-Tech Diarist: Ten Questions on the "Art of Conversation"

This year's Ad-Tech, which I'm still attending, is very special.  Most importantly, the first "keynote panel" of industry experts focused on an issue that rarely gets top billing at industry confabs: the art of conversation. This is an important shift in our collective industry "attention" and "engagement," and while we're all far from finalizing the perfect white paper or case study about managing relationships with consumers in this age of consumer control, we're finally starting to talk about it, and at minimum, ask the right questions.  I was deeply honored to moderate this first diverse panel of industry experts, which included (right to left after me in the photo) Tom Asher of Levi-Strauss, Beth Thomas-Kim of Nestle, Jordan Warren of Agency.com, Todd Cunningham of MTV, and Rick Clancy of Sony Consumer Electronics.   I was also thrilled to debate, discuss, and vet out all the relevant issues in several spirited meetings and conference calls before the actual event.  (Key learning: the "conversation about the conversation"  as as important as the end result.) You can skim various blogs (or Twitter feeds or see a superb cNet News story summary) that recap the panel, but what I'd like to do here is simply list the key question we probed and discussed. I truly believe every marketer needs to hit the white-board sooner than later on these questions. 

1. In what ways does Web 2.0 or the digital space expand the boundaries and opportunities of having meaningful conversations with consumers? Does it reinforce or add value to what we are currently doing?
2. What makes conversations truly authentic and genuine?  Is blogging the answer, or is it just an entry strategy? What's the right way of setting expectations with consumers?
3. How do we keep conversation with consumers trusted and credible? In the age of consumer control, do we have a higher threshold to meet this torture test?   What is the relationship between search and brand reputation, and how is 'conversation' impacting what shows up on the shelf?  Can that be influenced?
4. If conversation is king, is customer service or consumer affairs the new marketing? What's the true value of listening and being responsive to issues consumers raise directly to the brand?  Nurturing loyalty and advocacy among enthusiasts? Garnering big insights?
5. If we agree consumer affairs is a new centerpiece of managing conversations with increasingly empowered consumers, why is this group so divorced from marketing or media planning? How do we change that?
6. How do we begin to train, or expand the wings, of customer service reps to embark upon these new conversations with consumers, even outside of the company's backyard?  Who else should be involved?  What's the right and appropriate way to enter a blog or online community and address or clarify an issue?  Or is that even appropriate?
7. Who should "own" the conversation among marketing stakeholders? Corporate Communications (Ricks' group), Consumer Affairs (Beth and Tom), the digital agency (Jordan), the research folks (Todd), or someone else?  Or is that the wrong question? How do we use conversation and social media to soften corporate boundaries and silos?
8. In what ways should employees be enrolled in conversational marketing?  In what ways can their passion and credibility be unleashed?  Are employees a more trusted ad channel? Can it go too far? 
9. What is the value of "internal" learning in this area? Can organizations become better primed to exploit the power of conversation, CGM, and social media through internal use of Web 2.0 tools, blogs, and beyond.  What can internal networks borrow from consumer innovation?
10. How does conversation impact the retail channel? What are Apple, Sony, and Levis retail store venues learning about the relationship between "service" and marketing. How does the consumer benefit from this mindset, both offline and online?
11. Bonus Question:  What can go wrong?  What if every marketer jumps into the conversation?  Nirvana or Spam 2.0?   What happens if we lose consumer trust?

Many of these themes will be tackled at many levels -- and with finer levels of granularity -- at the upcoming Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) conference entitled WOMM-U.  I provided background about this last week.  Here's more info.

Other Ad-Tech Notes:  Late last night, I was flattered to receive a special Ad-Tech industry achievement award.  I dedicated it to my recently deceased father, William Blackshaw, who taught me all that can be good in advertising -- provided we keep it trusted and credible.   Other industry achievement award winners included Rich Lefurgy and Kate Thorp, both of whom I deeply respect and admire.  My message to the audience was that if we continue to keep the consumer right smack in the center of our radar, everyone wins -- always. I still think there are so many important issues we need to pro-actively address -- privacy, word-of-mouth ethics, ad intrusion, and more -- so while awards are appreciated (even humbling), we still have so much more work to do.  But before we get too serious here, I'd be remiss not to direct folks to the full list of award winners, including "Elf Yourself," which swept three categories.

Search and Reputation: Your Brand Standing Is Your Shelf Landing

My most recent ClickZ article, entitled Search & Reputation: Your Brand Standing is Your Shelf Landing, insists that "search and brand reputation share an inseparable, symbiotic relationship, and CGM is the dominant, if not final, arbiter of that marriage. That puts the exercise of managing brand equity on the thin, precarious line between control and capitulation." Further:

"In both pleasant and unsettling ways, companies are quickly learning their brand equity and credibility is the sum total, and composition of their search results. They're also beginning to internalize (usually the hard way) that CGM is now the fastest-growing source of indexed content in search results....That means, in essence, we're all hostage to the conversation."

This issue is a key theme in my upcoming book, and it powers one of my "six drivers of brand credibility" -- affirmation.  Brand credibility and reputation heavily rests on how well search results "affirm" brand attributes.  For example, after hearing a "we solve all your problems" ad pitch from a particular brand, a consumer might conduct a bit of extra due diligence on a search engine, or even Wikipedia. In some categories such as wireless, search results often "affirm" negative -- not positive -- experiences with the brand, hence eroding credibility. Every brand stakeholder needs to be attentive to these dynamics.   Again, here's the article.  If you want to dig deeper, John Battelle, not surprisingly, has written a fair amount about this topic.

Type in Pete Blackshaw into Google and

Where Do You Want to Drive (On Our Brand Search Engine) Today?

Here's a superb example of front-loading a highly useful "where do you want to drive today" search engine right smack in the center of the front page of a prominent brand website.  Thanks to Noah Brier for bringing this my attention at Ad-Tech last week (he also blogged it on the Naked agency blog).  I'm still amazed at how few brands put search in the center of the consumer experience. What the VW brand appears to appreciate here is the extent to which search drives the overall consumer experience for auto buyers, and even how web 2.0 tools (e.g. tagging) are simplifying the consumer discovery process.  Importantly, if search works so well on Google, why not on the internal brand website?  Too many brands (inexcusably) fail to include search engines on the home page.  And among those who do provide search, all too often the search engine fires back blanks or irrelevant content on critical search queries, especially anything related to a current event (e.g. crisis, recall, breaking news).  In my recent ClickZ piece ("Servicing Search: A Better Ad Model"), I noted that brands need to think more critically about three key talk drivers and "controllables" in the brand service proposition: the invitation, the interface, and the interaction.   VW checks of the first two boxes in a really big way.  So next time you visit your brand website, follow these steps:

1. See if you can find the search engine in less than 10 seconds?
2. Type in obvious terms like "latest news" or "customer service" or "recent advertising" and see if anything relevant or useful shows up
3. Review the actual results and ask yourself "is this what I was really looking for"
4. If disappointed on all three fronts, send a memo to whoever with a link to the VW site

Servicing Search

Does online search magnify the impact of customer service?  The answer is a big yes, and this is the theme of my ClickZ column today entitled "Servicing Search: A Better Ad Model."  Here's my basic argument.  If you look across the landscape of search results for major brands --  especially in high-involvement categories like auto, electronics, or wireless -- you'll find that CGM related to "service" or "customer service" fills a big chunk of the search pipeline.  Put another way, service experiences leave an aggressive digital trail, which in turn "echoes" back to consumers via search results.  While the Jeff Jarvis meets Dell example is probably the most extreme and well publicized example of customer service bleeding into search results, this happens in smaller, more subtle ways all the time. Customer service is one of those issues that uniquely hits emotional chords, and emotion, we know, is one of the biggest drivers of word-of-mouth.  What's critical for brands to understand is the degree to which their service operations -- whether through CSRs, 800-lines, or online feedback loops -- factors in the "viral effect" of satisfaction or dissatisfaction.  Just think about it: how much would you spend to ensure a dissatisfied consumer never took his or her case to YouTube?  As I note:

 "If you want a better, more inviting billboard when consumers search your brand, think hard about your own welcome mat. Remember, you are what they search."

CGM Meets Primetime!

Tomorrow is a really big CGM milestone for me.  I'm helping organize one of the first-ever "summits" focused exclusively on consumer-generated media.  This is part of my real job at Nielsen BuzzMetrics.  We're having 100 or so clients here in New York for a deep, extended conversation on all aspects of the measurability and actionability of CGM.  Should be fascinating as there's such a diversity of approaches to leveraging CGM.  Needless to say, I'm pumped!

CGM Week in Review: Dell Enters the Conversation

In this "first to know, first to tell" blogging world, it's hard to resist the temptation to drop commentary the second news or a key development breaks.  On one hand bloggers often maximize their so-called "social-currency" by being the first to comment, but on the other hand many of us are also anchored (at least rhetorically) to a "listen first, then enter the conversation" philosophy.  So what's the right time to credibly enter the conversation?  In the context of Dell computer launching a new corporate blog, I asked myself that question all last week.  I now have a few observations, and a ton of questions, but first some backdrop.

The Dell Blog Backdrop: The short version of the story is that Dell Computer, a recent subject of blogger and media scrutiny over customer service  (underscored last year by what's now been memoralized as the "Jeff Jarvis Incident" whereby one of the web's most prolific bloggers took Dell to the public woodshed for a customer service mishap), just launched a new corporate blog. The blog is named Dell One2One and is dedicated to informal conversation and dialogue around "the products, services, and related technology we provide (or could provide) to our customers."  To participants, the blog notes in it's Terms of Engagement

"You are encouraged to speak in an honest, informal voice and to foster productive, candid dialogue that can help us learn from each other. We’ll listen, as well as post, and ensure we engage in two-way conversations. Our intent is to provide a timely and accessible alternative to more formal, one-way channels of communication.

Reactions:  Blogger reaction, not surprisingly, was swift, and most, it seemed, initially were on the prowl for holes, gaps, discontinuities, inconsistencies, or that "achilles heel" issue the brand didn't think about (you know, the stuff bloggers typically do).  Steve Rubel and Jeff Jarvis offered early (somewhat) critical reactions that generally set the tempo for much of the debate in the blogophere, as well as the first few days of media coverage (reporters so far have taken most of their cues from early blogger reaction).  Jarvis's early comments also precipitated an unexpected controvery (which warrants it's own blog post).  My own assessment is that Dell so far has done about as good a job as you can expect considering the legal considerations and corporate constraints that surround blog or "conversational" initiatives.   The sincerity behind the initiative seems genuine, and the fact it's being presented against a backdrop of Dell claiming to spend upwards of $100 million to improve customer service fortifies the authenticity.  Importantly, at a time when prominent bloggers are opting to remove comments from the blogs, the Dell blog has managed to secure more external comments on it's blog in one week than just about any other corporate blog I've studied, including GM's Fastlane.  So by that standard, they clearly succeded in "entering the conversation."

Speakers & Seekers:  Moreover, if you pay careful attention to organic search-results, Dell also appears to be shifting the debate.  If you type in "Dell Blog" in Google, you'll note that the shelf-positioning has taken a meaningful shift from the early "Jarvis Dell Hell" content to coverage over the new One2One blog.  The biggest challenge facing Dell to date -- and one with enormous ROI implications -- is that the negative experience of one particular "speaker" (Jarvis) so dominated shelf-positioning that it interfered (Jarvis would probably prefer the world "enlightened") with buyers "seeking" information about Dell.  Dell is among the most "searched" brands on the internet, and when the conversational currency that appears on the shelf is negative, it acts like a targeted "media" impression.  This is a big reason why I'm so adamant about use of the term consumer-generated "media" versus the world "content."  The digital trail we leave acts like "media," and this is why nurturing feedback loops and meaningful conversation is so fundamentally strategic to brand building.

No Magic Wands for Customer Service?  The part of the blog that most engaged me was a post entitled "No Magic Wands for Customer Service?"  I appreciated the candor and honestly of the post, as did other bloggers, and it triggered perhaps the most important conversation on the blog, one I hope Dell keeps nurturing (for the sake of the entire marketing community).  Here's are excerpts from my own comment to this post, which gets to the heart of why these issues are so difficult for companies to address.

"Re-engineering customer service is one of the most difficult challenges for large brands...  Despite the consumer-generated "media impressions" that emanate from  customer service operations, the reality is that customer service/consumer affairs rarely commands the attention and respect (or resources) of marketing or media planning.  I say this with the frame of reference of having attended and presented to over a dozen conferences of the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals, and it's very clear that these departments are rewarded for two core behaviors: reducing contacts, and reducing time-spent per contact.  Even the PR industry, which is so focused on blog creation and conversations, is largely divorced from core strategies and business processes around customer service, call-support, contact-us."

The Brand "Listening" Gap: This is a theme I've discussed extensively in previous articles, and it's one that really became obvious to me as far back as 1999 when I founded PlanetFeedback.com, a site that has processed over a million letters and comments about customer service.  Marketing and consumer affairs typically work at cross-purposes. What's so curious (at times glaringly inconsistent) about corporate blogs these days is that their approach to "feedback" and "conversation" often run in a different direction than the bread and butter listening operations of the company, and only in rare cases (Dell appears to be an exception) is the consumer affairs department even involved...much less given a "courtesy" heads-up.  While Dell has dramatically improved the availability and customization of 800-numbers on its site, it's not entirely intuitive or easy to figure out how to send a basic e-mail to the company.  In the case Dell, GM, and so many other companies that have created ambitious corporate blogs, it's generally easier to deliver online feedback via the corporate blog than through the traditional pipe.  Key question: in the pursuit to stay credible with consumers, how do listening strategies stay consistent across all touch points?  This is an issue Laurent Flores, who frequently comments on this blog, keeps tackling head on.

Defining the Word "Conversation." Part of our challenge is that we all have different definitions of "conversation."  Is conversation a dialogue?  Is it something that only takes place "externally?" Is it "problem resolution?" Should we only think about "conversation" it in the context of a blog, or other "Web 2.0" marketing vehicles?  Or maybe we should ask the harder question of whether enabling public "conversation" from the get-go is a good idea in the first place (or in corporate shareholder's interest), a point Amanda Chapel has been hitting hard in her blog Strumpette.  Dell's challenge is greater than other brands not only because the "conversation" has opened up difficult issues to the public airwaves but because it built it's business on the power of product-centered "design it yourself" feedback loops, which implies, from the get-go, a more intimate relationship.  The brand also pioneered "direct" online selling on the internet, going as far back as the late 1990s (a development I watched closely while at P&G, as our agency of record, Grey Interactive, also owned Dell's first foray into direct online selling).  All of this set a different set of expectations -- and a higher bar -- relative to other computer brands.

Final Questions:  Back to my very first point: we really need to continue "listening" to the pulse and tempo and reaction to this blog before reaching hard and fast conclusions, or codifying this into a "case study" of "dos" or don'ts".  Conversations take time; good learning takes longer.  In the meantime, I do think Dell's entry into the CGM-powered blogosphere has triggered some very important questions for any brand or company entering the blogosphere to ponder:

Key Question For Corporations Creating Blogs

• In our blog strategy, who are we really talking to? Real customers?  Former customers (e.g. Jarvis?) Influencers?  Bloggers who may or may not use our products?  Brand stakeholders? All of the above?
• What’s more important: customer reaction or influencer reaction?
• Do we really want an “open” conversation? What are the liabilities? Do we even have a choice?
  
• What do we really mean by "conversation?" Blog comments?  Problem resolution? Do the participants expect a true dialogue?  How consistent should this be with other "feedback loops"
• Do we treat certain bloggers differently?  What are the consequences in a "transparent" environment when everyone has equal access to a brand's "recovery" strategy?
• How well does our blog strategy match up with how we manage consumer affairs or consumer relations?  Any disconnects?  Are we "conversationally" exposed?
• How is the conversation impacting my search results?  Do the results appear authentic or manipulated?  Are they pushing out less desirable conversations?
• How do we manage the patience of internal stakeholders and managers who may be eager to pounce on the first embarrassing stumble or negative criticism?

MSS (Manually Simple Syndication) of Relevant Articles on Topic

Sam Decker (excellent perspective from a former Dell employee),BlogPulse Citations on Issue, Shel Holtz, Listening Post, Jarvis Posts on Topic, Richard Cleaver, NixGuy, SteveRubel (see trackbacks), Robert Scoble (good comments as well), Andy Lark (good comments)

Disclosure:  My firm works with a large share of Fortune 500 companies on blog and CGM strategies, and in the past this has included some work for Dell.  That said, have no tie to the Dell coporate blog.

Parenting Your Brand

Who's more at risk – little Johnny on MySpace or the child known as our brand.  This is the question I probe in tomorrow's ClickZ article entitled "Parenting Your Brand."   

As with our kids, our brands face comparable risks of exposure, ruined reputations, eroded equity, and compromised positioning via the Web. Most of us are too busy watching TV to fully appreciate this reality.