Posts Tagged ‘David Butter’

So companies are at last ‘taking Web 2.0 tools seriously’ to tap into collective intelligence, www.ft.com/digitalbusiness.

But it begs the question: Why don’t we just talk? Have a Live 2.0 conversation with our customers, our people, our suppliers?

They all know that business as usual is not an option. They all know that none of us has all the answers - let alone the questions. They want to be part of a shared future.

Web 2.0 tools can indeed deliver real business benefits.

But nothing beats getting key stakeholders together in real time, on neutral territory away from the office, building trust, co-creating new ways forward, and making shared commitments, and acting on them fast. Live 2.0.

You can facilitate the conversation yourself. Or you can use a professional facilitator (www.iaf-world.org).

But you have to talk. And listen.

David has become a twitterer.

Be honest: which resource is more precious to you: your budget? or your time?

I thought so.

Second question: Which resource do you focus on spending more effectively: your budget? or your time?

I thought so . Different answer to the first question, right?

One more question! Who do you spend more time with: your colleagues? or your customers? Yep. Most of us do!

So here’s the offer. Let’s spend 48 hours with your customers. Sure, bring all your senior management colleagues and any other key stakeholders. .yes that can include non-execs and even your Chairman.

You’ll achieve more in a two day co-creative forum, than a month of Sundays writing and delivering and listening to power point presentations at meetings with your management colleagues ( That’s what’s taking your time, right?)

Believe me it works. (Or if you don’t believe me ask my clients or their customers.) You’ll save time. Your customers will be happy you listened to them -and you’ll reach a new level of trust and understanding.

My guess is you’ll be pleased you spent time on what was important, rather than what was urgent. You may even find you didn’t need to write or listen to that power point presentation after all.

Since The TV era, marketing has been defined by communications not content.

About polishing the stone rather than sharpening it. Or about questioning if it should be a stone.

Take Heathrow 5 - where the focus on the new ( cancelled) campaign proved to be an inadequate deliverable for marketing management.

You know the joke of the ad man who sitting on the edge of the bed telling how great it’s going to be.

We need to focus on actions not words. Or rather interactions. That’s where value is created. Marketers tend to call them ‘touch points’ . This is a feeble term. They should be considered ‘value points’

We need to create the experience, not talk about how great it’s going to be. Or as my colleague Francis Gouillart would say: Co-create the experience.

‘360′ is ‘180′ the wrong answer. It’s implies a technique-driven perspective: integrating from us to the customer.

We need to come at it other way round! Put the customer inside - then take a 360 with the organisation. Rather like my friend Miha Pogacnik who puts the audience inside his Slovenian Symphony Orchestra !

The future is about aligning resources and skills around companies’ interactions.

A marketer’s job is to create an experience - part tangible part intangible. To ‘Co-create’. With ‘prosumers’ rather than consumers.

The traditional client agency structure is wrong in so many ways. What is needed is for marketers to initiate a conversation between their colleagues, their agencies and their customers in real time and in real space.

Yes, on the web is a good start, but there’s nothing like a physical real time conversation where you can see the whites of your customers eyes, hear what they don’t say as well as what they do, and take live decisions with all key stakeholders present.

Don’t start with techniques; as innovative marketers are doing , start with experiences.

And the final thought: marketing is too important to be left to marketers. Because a good marketer needs all parts of the organisation aligned behind delivering their story. Unless of course you just want to be a storyteller.