Bringing conversation into the mix.

2. Conversation and Your Brand
Developing, growing and strengthening your brand has
always been about the conversation that surrounds it
s What your customers are saying
s What your employees are saying
s What influencers are saying
s What the competition is saying
s What the investment community is saying
Rethink—a fresh take on connecting with your customers 02

3. Conversation and Your Brand
And until recently we’ve controlled that conversation by
carefully assigning how we communicate
s Marketing and Advertising - broadcast the message
s Public Relations - steer the message
s HR - explain the message internally
s Internal Communications - sell the message
s Sales/Business Development - carry the message to each
customer
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4. What’s Changed?
Conversation is no longer between just two people
s In December 1998, 23 known blogs and in April 1999 the term
“blog” was born
s In 2003, the Oxford English Dictionary listed “blog” as both a
noun and a verb and the worldwide blog count was at 1 million
s Today (April 2008) Forrester Research reports the numbers to be
18% of on-line users have published a blog or web page, uploaded
a video or music, or posted articles or stories on line and 56% of
all
online consumers had participated in some sort of social
application
in the last month
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5. What’s Changed?
And communicating with the customer is no longer
easily assigned
Kryptonite Bike Locks
PR Dept. Response
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6. Kryptonite’s response:
“W e unde rs tand the re are c once rns re g arding tubular cy linde rs us e d in s ome Kry ptonite locks .
The tubular c y linde r, a s tandard indus try -w ide de s ig n, has be e n s ucce s s fully us e d for more than
30 y e ars in our products and othe r s e curity applications w ithout s ig nificant is s ue s .
The c urre nt Kry ptonite loc ks bas e d on a tubular cy linde r de s ig n continue to pre s e nt an e ffe ctiv e
de te rre nt to the ft. As part of our continuing commitme nt to produce pe rformance and improv e d
s e c urity , Kry ptonite has be e n de v e loping a dis c-s ty le cy linde r for s ome y e ars . In 2000, Kry ptonite
introduce d the dis c -s ty le c y linde r in its pre mie r line of products , the Ne w York s e rie s . In 2002,
Kry ptonite be g an de v e lopme nt of a ne w dis c cy linde r s y s te m for both its Ev olution and Kry ptoLok
produc t line s , w hic h curre ntly us e the tubular cy linde r de s ig n. The s e products are s che dule d to be
introduce d in the ne xt fe w w e e ks .
W e are ac c e le rating the de liv e ry of the ne w dis c cy linde r locks and w e will communicate dire ctly
w ith our dis tributors , de ale rs and cons ume rs within the coming day s . The world jus t g ot toug he r
and s o did our loc ks .”
Rethink—a fresh take on connecting with your customers 06

7. What’s Changed?
Conversation is happening 24/7, all over the world,
in a matter of minutes
Amazon Goes Down (approx. 4:30-6:00 am on June 6, 2008)
June 6, 2008 | 10:34 AM PDT — Amazon suffers U.S. outage on Friday
June 6, 2008 | 1:36:47 — Amazon Back Up After Outage
June 6, 2008 | 3:42 — Amazon loses $1.8-million due to outage: AdAge
Close of Day: NASDAQ (Amazon)
Last Price 80.67 ( 3:00 PM EDT)
Change (%) -3.59 (-4.26%)
Day High 83.46
Day Low 80.61
Rethink—a fresh take on connecting with your customers 07

8. What’s Changed?
Customers will not limit their conversations about your
business, your product or your service to your sales or
customer service people
s Buyers prefer to be educated, not sold and want to pursue this
education anonymously until they’ve reached a purchasing
decision
s Peer opinions/reviews on product, service, company and brand
are becoming more and more relevant to the buyer’s decision
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9. Can I ignore it?
It isn’t hard to talk ourselves out of adding conversation
to the mix
s Business has been operating the same way for a long time and it’s
proven effective
s Only the young kids are into the whole conversation thing
s My customers are all over 40 and aren’t into all that new stuff
s Our 5-year strategic plan doesn’t take into account social
networking
s Conversations of this type are really just relevant to B2C and isn’t
really affecting the B2B marketplace
s My budget’s already stretched so thin
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10. No - Employees will demand it
Web conversation isn’t going away
s Personal communication needs and wants will quickly become professional
communication needs and wants
s Blair Christie, Cisco – “W e b 2.0 bring s w ork and pe rs onal life s ty le s clos e r tog e the r
w ith pote ntial be ne fits to the bus ine s s w orld. It’s a mas h-up of y our w orld at home
and our world in bus ine s s .”
s Nancy DeLapp, VP, IBM – “The corporate w orkforce is g oing to chang e dramatically
w ith the s oc ially ne tw orke d e mploy e e population coming into our companie s v e ry s oon.”
s Clara Shih, The AppExchange Blog – “The Face book g e ne ration w ill g row up and
c ompris e an inc re as ing portion of the w orkforce and company le ade rs hip.”
s Boomers are getting there or getting out
s X-generationers are there and demanding change in the workplace
s Y-generationers (millenianers) will accept nothing else and will only work with
those keeping pace with them
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11. And customers will demand it
Your customers expect to have conversations with
you on t h e ir t e r m s
Target loses its “cool.”
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12. And customers will demand it
The Viral Garden post:
“It all started when Amy Jussel from ShapingYouth.org spotted the Target billboard to
the right, and saw something other than a woman making a snow Angel. Amy felt that
the billboard 'targetted' the wrong message for young girls, and emailed her complaint
to Target. The company would later email her the following response:
‘Good Morning Amy ,
Thank y ou for contacting Targ e t; unfortunate ly we are unable to re s pond to y our
inquiry be caus e Targ e t doe s not participate with non-traditional me dia outle ts . This
practice is in place to allow us to focus on publications that re ach our core g ue s t.
Once ag ain thank y ou for y our inte re s t, and hav e a nice day .’”
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13. Plus, the media is listening and participating
Hot news stories for major media outlets are starting with
conversations on the web and reporters are ensuring
those conversations/stories reach a much wider audience
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14. The New York Times Contacts Target
(as reported in the Viral Garden post)
“The Ne w Y ork Time s als o c ontacte d Targ e t, w ho re plie d that ‘W e do not w ork w ith blog g e rs
curre ntly ,’ s aid a c ompany s poke s woman, Amy v on W alte r. As the NYTime s points out, Targ e t
w on't talk to blog g e rs , but W ILL talk to a MS M s ource that's w riting a s tory about how the y w on't
talk to blog g e rs .
But none of this e xcus e s the fac t that it is abs olute ly unforg iv able for a major corporation, in 2008,
to hav e a policy in place that s tate s that it ig nore s blog g e rs . To g o a s te p furthe r and bas ically
imply that blog g e rs don't re pre s e nt Targ e t's 'core g ue s ts ', is the he ig ht of ig norance . Amy mig ht be
a blog g e r, but s he w as als o a Targ e t cus tome r that contacte d the company w ith a complaint. And
s he w as all but ig nore d.
BTW w he n the NY Time s c ontac te d Targ e t and the y claime d that the y don't w ork w ith blog g e rs
curre ntly , the c ompany c larifie d that s tate me nt by adding “But we hav e made e xce ptions . And w e
are re v ie w ing the polic y and may adjus t it.” IOW , the company may chang e the ir policy if the s tory
y ou are w riting c aus e s a big e noug h s tink.”
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15. The most important reason to rethink
Faster, smarter business is all about embracing
conversations in a Web 2.0 world
s It’s increasing your sales force by thousands
s It’s increasing your PR department by thousands - IBM
s You get feedback on your product/service directly from your
customers instantly allowing you to adjust to changing market
conditions faster
s Messaging can be adjusted quickly and with better insight
s Quicker connections with audiences before, during and after
events
like trade shows, symposiums, seminars, meetings, etc.
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16. Additional benefits
s With buyers in control you can facilitate demand instead of generating it
s Closer connection between marketing and sales messaging/tools
s Ability to nurture relationship that already exists offline
s Quicker lead generation
s Adds peer to the mix for a quicker sale
s Better customer segmentation
s Achieves brand qualities that traditional marketing struggles to achieve
s Credibility
s Understanding
s Sustainability
s Quicker/stronger brand alignment
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17. Ok, I’m rethinking
Where do I begin???
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18. Understand who’s in charge?
No one and everyone
s Traditional departments - advertising, PR, marketing, communications,
customer service, IT (yes, IT), but free of silos and internal politics
s Leadership Team and business units - proving business value to the CEO
s CEO - champion the principles, values and behaviors
s Employees - the best companies will let go of their message and control
of the gate and trust it with their employees to carry forward.
s Your customer
s Bea Fields (author of Millennial Leaders): “Cus tome rs hav e alway s
be e n a force in the e v olution of brands . W hat is happe ning is s imply
that the part cus tome rs play in brand e v olution is be coming more
v is ible and is the re fore taking on a more important role .”
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19. Understand the rules of the road
s Understand push vs. pull and when to use one or the other
s Think dialogue vs. monologue
s Make each conversation relevant to each audience
s McDonald’s Brand Journalism
s St. Norbert IM addresses
s Achieve and maintain brand alignment
s Creating an environment that is conducive and accepting of
conversation
s Think less about technology and more about sociology
s Participating in the message instead of controlling it
s Dell Hell
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20. Rules of the road
Dell Hell
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21. Rules of the road
The Manifesto for Monday Morning
(By Peter Hirshberg, Technorati and Steven Hyden, Ogilvy)
“Live brands participate in conversations in a manner that is:”
s Re al
s Cons tant
s Ge nuine ly inte re s te d
s Inte nt on le arning
s Humble
s Atte ntiv e
s Pe rs onal
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22. Rules of the road
Wal-Mart
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23. Be brave
B2C is already there. B2B is blazing a trail.
Audiences recognize innovation in communications.
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24. Great conversations going on now
s Enterprise
s St. Norbert College
s Dell (click on Dell Community)
s McDonalds
s Huggies
s Lexus
s Starbucks
s Miller Electric
s Scotland
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25. Get started
Get comfortable
s Make sure your brand and your business are ready for each step
s Break down conversation/department silos
s Align your brand
s Hire a community manager to listen to conversations about your
brand
s Get key influencers comfortable with the tools of conversation
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26. Get started
Test the waters
s Add an online response mechanism to a product description,
white paper or case study
s Add broadcast conversation to your careers/employment page
s Figure out a way to connect customers with the people they
really want to talk to inside your company
s Figure out a way to connect your customers with each other
s Start an Intranet blog or sales force blog
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27. Get started
SelectMinds, which works mainly with B2B companies to
create internal social networks, cites the following results
for their clients:
s Productivity increased on average 10.33%
s New business increased on average 11.65%
s Retention increased on average 5%
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28. Get started
When you’re ready to charge ahead - STOP!
Ask yourself
• How will we benefit from initiating or participating
in a conversation?
• With whom do we want to have the conversation?
• Where are the conversations currently taking place?
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29. Don’t forget
Sell it!
s Define objectives and measurements
s Determine value
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30. “A brand is an e motional re lations hip be twe e n the us e r and the product, W e b 2.0
allows us to build that re lations hip one to one , to me as ure thing s and g e t an imme diate
re action. But pe ople talk about y our brand in way s y ou can’t control, whe the r pos itiv e
or ne g ativ e , be a part of that dis cus s ion s o y ou unde rs tand it.”
Lou Aversano
Managing Partner, Ogilivy Worldwide
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31. Conversation
Today’s conversation was brought you by:
•Thomas Petziner, Jr. The Wall Street Journal – Forward, The Cluetrain Manifesto
•Susan Solomon, the ClickZ Network – Brand Journalism
•Peter Hirshberg, Technorati and Steven Hyden, Ogilvy – The Manifesto for Monday Morning.
•Brian Solis, principal at FutureWorks – PR 2.0 blog entry
•Nilofer Merchant, CEO of Rubison Consulting – Segmentation in a Web 2.0 World, MarketingProfs
April 10, 2007.
•Bea Fields, author of Millennial Leaders
•Ellis Booker, BtoB On-line, Leads: Finding, tracking, nurturing, converting, May 27, 2008
•Karen Breen Vogel, CEO of ClearGuage, BtoB Online Post 5.27.08
•Doc Searlys – The Cluetrain Manifesto
•Tim Riesterer – Customer Message Management, Marketing Profs Virtual Seminar, June 7, 2007
•Web 2.0 and the Corporation, Roundtable at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
•Toby Hoden, CMO, ING
•Lou Aversano, Managing Partner Ogilvy Worldwide
•Blair Christie, VP, Cisco
•Jon Iwata, Senior VP, IBM
•Frank Boncimino, Senior VP, Time Warner Cable
•Nancy DeLapp, Global VP, IBM
•Clara Shih, The AppExchange Blog, Salesforce.com, posted January 30, 2008
•Mack Collier, The Viral Garden Blog, posted January 29, 2008
•Phillip Torrone, engadget, posted Sep 16th 2004 at 12:20PM
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