Contrarian. I’ll take that title. Gladly. There’s value in understanding conventional wisdom—it often give you a clue on what not to do.
Tom Asacker’s also a contrarian. Those in the branding world consider him a legend for his work A Clear Eye for Branding. People who really want to leverage the power of social media for something worthwhile would be right to think of Tom as a legend, too, for his work in A Little Less Conversation: Connecting with Customers in a Noisy World.
Over the next few days I’m hoping to give you an actionable review of the entire book.
Just like Captain Jack says in the opening episode of Torchwood, “It’s the 21st century; that’s when everything changes.” Though we’re not experiencing a temporal rift in the space-time continuum (as far as I know), we are undergoing a seismic shift in the locus of power in commercial communication. Asacker describes five major trends painting the edges of this shift:
- Today’s consumer is supersaturated with choice
- Today’s consumer is bombarded with overwhelming amounts of information thrust upon them from an endless array of media (oh, and this information is often quite conflicting)
- The marketplace is influenced by radical transparency and message amplification
- Not only are consumers well informed and savvy, they want to participate in marketing (in the past, consumers were content merely to consume marketing with no expectation of co-creating it)
- Customers do not trust businesses or the people who run them
What do these trends mean for marketers? For starters, it means that marketers are not in charge. You’re probably saying, “duh, no one thinks they are.” Not long ago I went to a “technology summit” for a statewide political organization. I wish I would have thought to count the number of times someone gave “we just need to get our message out” as a solution to a problem. Anyone who thinks the answer is getting a message OUT still thinks they control the conversation. Start paying attention to the number of times people say things like, “if people only understood the benefits of…” or “we just need to educate folks on….” My hunch is, you’ll hear phrases that suggest “marketers as powerful” is the ruling motif.
Secondly, it means marketers simply must focus on the people in the marketplace. Getting the message IN is a first step toward overcoming the pervasive skepticism in consumer’s minds. Could be that what you HEAR is far more valuable than anything you might possibly SAY.
Third, old notions such as economy of scale just don’t matter any more. The marketplace IS a level playing field for anyone willing to forget old habits, humbly engage with human beings person-to-person, and give people an opportunity to co-create the experiences they seek.
This is just a start. Tom Asacker builds a profound worldview in the rest of A Little Less Conversation. I’ll come back to it tomorrow.
My radio interview with Tom Asacker for the Social Media Professor program.
Subscribe to the Social Media Professor podcasts
PS. Robin Dickinson has a go follow-up expansion of this post: the most powerful way to build relationships.
