A leader of one of the movements we helped ignite and I were chatting on the phone yesterday. She wanted to know what we considered “secret sauce” in the development of that particular movement so she could know what she could and shouldn’t talk about to the outside world.
While we do consider different components within a movement and how they’re wired together – including the custom curriculums we create – to be part of the secret sauce, I think we netted out that the real secret - that elusive silver bullet if you will - is the company that the movement is built around.
And as we talk to bigger and bigger companies, we are beginning to easily tell if they’re ready for a movement or just looking for a buzz campaign, viral video or the like. Because the “campaign” mentality is an easier road for them to travel. It’s not permanent. It’ll be gone in a few months and they can move on to something else. In other words, it fits in nicely with the traditional marketing model and mindset.
But the real secret sauce is the culture of the company that the movement grows out of. That’s it. If they’re ready, then the movement flourishes. It’s a mindset, not an experiment. It’s a commitment, not an item on a checklist. If a long term, sustainable movement is going to take root and succeed, it has to start in a courageous company (or at least a courageous group within that company). A company with trust in their customers. A company that is not afraid to open the kimono and show the world its bumps, bruises and imperfections.
So is there some secret sauce involved? You bet. But the biggest component is no secret. That’s why we’re seeing so many companies fail when it comes to trying to create something long term and sustainable. Movements are add-ons. You can’t own it, you have to become a part of it. And when a company is ready for that, well, there’s no stopping them.
Following on the heels of yesterday’s post, I’d like to take a moment to discuss a sticking point – or sometimes a point of paralyzing doubt – for a lot of companies and their CMOs out there. It’s simply not having a sexy product or service. Or at least it’s not sexy in their minds. This leads to the client doesn’t think it’s sexy website and the non-sexy identity. The non-sexy marketing communications soon follow and there you have it: A whole bunch of not sexy - at least when you compare it to the illusion of sexy out there already.
First of all, sexy is subjective. Sure, the BMW M6 convertible is sexy to me. But might not be to the next guy who thinks the new operating system for his laptop is sexy. Or the engineer who’s excited about the latest plasma cutter. Sexy is different for everyone. I mean some people even think their Zunes are sexy (god help them).
Secondly, when it comes to people talking about you, you don’t need to be the next iPod. I just overhead a conversation between Justin and Eric here in the office. Justin is trying to fix a toilet at his house and Eric recommended some silicone by name to him. Yes, I said silicone.
So quit chasing sexy. The fact is, if you’re out there treating customers like people instead of consumers; if you’re a conduit to their passion instead of trying to own it; and if you realize that the sum of the parts are bigger than you, then you have something there. We call it profit through purpose. And sometimes, even if you think the sexy is nowhere to be found, it goes and springs up in the strangest places.
Thirty-five percent of the online communities studied have less than 100 members; less than 25% have more than 1,000 members – despite the fact that close to 60% of these businesses have spent over $1 million on their community projects. “A disturbingly high number of these sites fail,” Moran tells us. (UPDATE: The WSJ article has been edited to say that it’s not 60% of business that have spent over $1 million, it’s 6%.)
The article goes on to say that most companies get caught up in all the technological bells and whistles and blow their big budgets pouring money into these online gadgets. Ed suggests that companies should spend those resources identifying potential members of a community first.
I gotta admit, I love this article. Everyone is running around trying to copy Facebook and MySpace. Online communities are popping up everywhere. And I really can’t see the point behind most of them. Is it so the CMO can point to it and say, “Look! We’re part of Web 2.0, too!?!” And then there’s the numbers game. These companies want 10,000 people in the first week. So they have contests. Giveaways. Gimmicks out the wazoo. And the people come. But the don’t stick around. There’s no community there. It’s just another website. Another registration form. With no sticking power. No reason to come back. The community has no sense of community, because most CMOs see it as just another vehicle to push messages through.
So before you jump into the online community pool, there is a lot of heavy lifting to do up front. A lot of questions to be asked. And a lot of hard work to make sure you create something that’s long-term and sustainable instead of another flash in the pan. The first thing to keep in mind? Ninety-two percent of word of mouth happens offline. So make sure the online supports the offline and vise versa.
Otherwise you’ll have a nice, pretty site that ends up being another community ghost town.
I was in NYC for business a couple of days earlier this week and had the most amazing experience. After a long day of meetings, travel and flight delays (and almost losing my iphone@!@#*) I arrived at The Greenwich Hotel.
It was about 8:30pm.
Now, normally when I travel to NYC I stay at one of the Starwood hotels. We are preferred members and between us we rack up some extras, like room upgrades. But they were all booked. I was late making hotel plans, so the person booking for me found this place. Looked nice.
Bear with me, because I am about to get carried away with this story. I travel a good bit, but this was without a doubt one of the coolest welcomes I have ever received.
They grabbed my bags out of the cab.
Took my luggage to my room as I checked in.
The very nice guy behind the desk welcomed me by name.
Then he took me to my room. And gracefully showed it off.
The snacks and drinks – free, (well, except alcohol). Seems they (the owners) tried hard to create a hotel that eliminated all their personal pet peeves, like paying nine bucks for a bag of chips.
The Greenwich Hotel is brand new (but has this feeling of a hotel that has been around a very long time). They are obviously quite proud – and rightfully so.
The rooms and bath are huge for NYC. There are amazing meeting spaces and this wonderful outdoor courtyard in the center. I could go on and on. But here is what got to me.
This handwritten note was on the desk in my room.
Wait — it gets better.
Somehow in the course of our conversation Todd told me about the restaurant, “Ago” and I say “Good, I might go have a glass of wine and something to eat.” As I am sitting there trying to decide about that and making a call, they bring me a freaking glass of wine and four of the best pieces of chocolate I have ever eaten. You know, the kind with sea salt sprinkled on top to bring out the flavor. Seriously, it was over the top.
Oh - and on my desk with the first note – there was a letter asking if I could please let them know what they can do better. They only wanted the negatives, so they can be sure to address them right away.
Can they keep it up? I don’t know. But I have to tell you, if they do – they will be booked every night for the rest of eternity. It was really a great reminder that REMARKABLE service is putting yourself in the shoes of your customers, listening hard and paying attention to every little detail. Being in the service business, I LOVE when I get an over the top reminder like this.
I didn’t get to see the full report, but apparently ABC’s God Morning America ran a piece recently on word of mouth companies BzzAgent, VocalPoint and Tremor. The online article gives the basic run-down we’ve all seen before, but I’m curious to find (and find the time) to watch the segment, but what is fascinating to me is the 670 comments on the online article. The vast majority of people heard, “if you sign up to be a part of one of these word of mouth companies, you get free stuff.” And thus there are 670 comments of people asking for the links so they too can get free stuff.
While it’s no secret that while I don’t necessarily love the BzzAgent or Tremor models, I do agree that those types of campaign buzz models have their place in the world. But I wonder if it’s how the companies were presented in the piece or how the viewers perceived the piece that accounts for the “I want free stuff” attitude. I wonder if those companies highlighted in the piece got flooded with new applicants. And I also wonder how many of those will be active in those buzz campaigns or are just signing up to get free stuff.
In the WOMM realm, we all have to walk a fine line and never make it about the “free stuff.” As soon as we do, this entire industry will take a nose dive as it won’t equate to anything above a BOGO or couponing offer. And that, my friends, just ain’t WOM.
We received an email last week from a company called ForumBooster. You’ll have to look them up, because I’m not going to do them the favor of linking to them.
Here’s the main content of the message:
The service was built to make forum & community building cost-efficient and streamlined. We are working very successfully with Buzz Marketing agencies, producing thousands of monthly posts. Forum Booster has been in business for over 3 years and has produced over 238,000 posts for 1,300 clients. We are the most experienced forum building service on the internet.
Forum Booster can also be utilized beyond forums to populate any user generated content. We have been used for writing product reviews, blog commenting, blog ghost writing, user generated articles, and a wide variety of niche writing projects.
Our online communities can begin or bolster the kind of natural, grassroots-generated buzz that your clients want for their products. Nothing says viral marketing like hundreds or even thousands of our Boosters all talking about a product!
Our pricing starts at $4.95 for a Trial Boost with discounts for volume orders. We also offer an invoicing option for companies that order $500 or more in services.
So let me get this straight: These guys have people learn a little bit about your industry or company and then flood legitimate forums trying to pimp your brand, posing like normal, everyday people. I don’t know what disturbs me more, the fact that there are companies out there that do this or that there are over 238,000 posts of misinformation floating around out there and 1300 clients that think this type of thing is okay.
Honest transparency will win everytime just like underhanded, stealth, shill techniques will get found out everytime. For shame!
No… it’s not tennis (though I guess that makes three things I know nothing about… next I’ll have to blog about spatial relationships). Today I’m on:
Hip-Hop and Chess.
But here they are, together at last. Apparently RZA (that’s a name, I guess) of Wu Tang Clan is a big chess fan, so they are in the process of launching WuChess… “the world’s first online chess and Hip-Hop community.” You can create a profile, play live online chess games, chat about Wu Tang… apparently this subscription based site ($48/year) already has 5,000 people pre-registered (early joiners get a special founders t-shirt). Personally, I’ll be interested to see how the activity in this community distributes itself - mostly chess, mostly hip-hop… who knows? But the fact is, it seems like people can choose the way they want to interact with the site. AND, the organization even has a higher purpose attached. Hundreds of kids will be given free access to playing online chess, and 10-20% of the revenue earned by the site will provide academic scholarships from… wait for it… The Hip-Hop Chess Federation.
In this Web 2.0 world, with social networking sites seeming to outnumber actual people, it certainly seems that Wu Tang has found a way to provide a unique value and experience. There is certainly a reason to sign on with this community in contrast to any of the other ones out there. While I doubt you’ll find me castling my king with the rest of the Wu Tang community (com-wu-nity? sorry.), I do think it’s worth taking note. Specific, true to the people who started it, clearly keying into some existing passion, finding a higher purpose along the way… if they can manage to deliver on the experience and authenticity that music fans (and I would argue, chess fans) expect, this may really be something to watch.
The PASSION DIAL
My favorite scene from the mock rockumentary This is Spinal Tap is when Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) is talking to Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) about his special Marshall amp head…an amp on which all dials go to eleven. My favorite line is when DiBergi asks, “Why don’t you just use 10 as the loudest and make that the highest one?” Tufnel replies, “This one goes to 11!” It makes me laugh just to think about it. Maybe you’ll think it’s odd, but I also find it to be an inspiration when thinking about a brand’s relationship with its most passionate customers. Companies should aspire to ratchet-up their relationships with customers to be ONE LOUDER.
I think Tufnel’s special amp is a tribute to his passion for being the loudest band in the world. To get there, he needs one more click. Passion is not logical. And what if we used the AMP as a metaphor? As in what’s the AMP equivalent within a company? Or more to the point, how does Passion relate to a company, or an organization’s customers?
Passion is from the Latin word “patior,” meaning to suffer or to endure. To some I’m sure they felt this way listening to Tufnel playing at 11. A more contemporary definition: passion is an intense emotion compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for anything and often requiring action.
According to Thomas Friedman, curiosity and passion are key prerequisites for education in a “flat world,” where information is readily available and where global markets reward those who have learned how to learn and are self-motivated to learn. In today’s world, he argues, it is more important to be passionate and curious than to be merely smart. Friedman has reduced this principle to a formula: CQ + PQ > IQ, meaning Curiosity Quotient plus Passion Quotient is greater than Intelligence Quotient. Friedman says that he lives by this formula: “Give me the kid with a passion to learn and a curiosity to discover and I will take him or her over the less passionate kid with a huge IQ every day of the week.” IQ “still matters, but CQ and PQ . . . matter even more.”
At Brains On Fire we’ve come to learn this formula has a value for companies and organizations – specifically ones that want to create long-term, sustainable movements. Passion should be the main driver for choosing a company’s customer ambassadors. Most traditional marketing treats customers like on/off switches. It’s the campaign mentality of turning the marketing switch to ON with the start of a campaign. And when the campaign runs its multi-week course, the marketing goes dark … and the switch is turned to OFF.
Wouldn’t it be better to treat customers as volume dials rather than on/off switches? Companies should embrace conversations that have a more sustainable long-term effect. Treat customers as volume dials. The volume levels never go to zero. The conversation always continues. Sometimes the conversation gets louder and sometimes softer, but never does the conversation end or go mute. There are no off times or dark times with movements because there is always a constant hum of activity.
Today we are in a new model for building fans. Musicians of today can control their own destiny, not having to rely on the old-school record label model. But still the key to any musician’s or band’s success is the fan - just like a company or brand’s success is determined by its customers, and sustainable success by its fans.
Creating a real passion dial requires commitment by a company to put itself out there. And I’m not talking anonymously putting itself out there. I’m talking about allowing the internal workings and people to be visible and transparent. Engaging in building relationships with fans. Then recognizing the opportunities to find authentic transportation to where the fans are. Bands start with vans, then buses, then airplanes. Traveling from their neighborhood, to cities and then continents.
A band’s fan growth is usually tied to performance - the same can be said with a company. Many bands have been successful by using social media, but that’s just a small part. It’s being available to their communities of fans, large and small. This also requires a balance of benefiting the community – less money for the band/brand but more fans that lead to fame and fortune all the while maintaining loyal fans as opposed to the “sell-out,” which means more money in the short term and a lot of exposure, but a fanbase that is always looking for the next best thing – which won’t be you.
Thinking this way can keep your company’s efforts honest and thinking long-term. From a fan’s perspective that’s what we want, and from the brand’s perspective that’s what they want. Marketers and brands lose focus on PASSION, or maybe just plain and simple de-value it.
So how does a brand reach an 11 on the PASSION dial? You can say that Tufnel’s Marshall Amp really didn’t reach past 10 and go to 11. But if Tufnel believes it plays at 11, does it really matter whether or not it’s actually louder? Maybe he play his chords tighter, sustains his notes longer, and ‘what if’ he reaches 11 by feeding off the energy of his fans? That’s where a brand can reach 11. It’s fanatical fans infecting their fanaticism into the brand’s internal band members. It’s easy to stop believing and just go through the motions until you start to see that you are providing a real value to your brand fans. Moving the dial from 10 to 11 cannot be done by the fans alone.
