Brand2.0h!

Wondering why I put in a face ( a first on my blog)?

For one,  Mitchell Baker, is the Chairman(sic- person?) of Mozilla Corp. The folks that made Firefox, the new Gold Standard

in web browsing. And more importantly, the founder of a movement that takes open source into the space of product design and marketing!

Here’s an interesting interview she gave to Lenny T. Mendonca and Robert Sutton of the McKinsey Quarterly Journal.

To my mind, the biggest management shift in the 21st century has been - open source innovation! What started as corporates and startups running successfully with ideas, initiatives, and suggestions that came from all levels of an organisation, has now made a web 2.0 shift. Open Source Innovation- is based on people who are interested in you, your company and your product, suggesting ideas, methods, initiatives, and then also participating the user experience.

Mozilla, in its current avatar, is perhaps, the first player in harnessing and converting into a successful model, people’s urge to improve their experiences. The lessons that come up in terms of participatory public service and governance, are great if they can be effectively leveraged.

The insights shared might also look at changing the way marketers look at communities for branding and product roadmaps in the Brand 2.0 world… or even a lot more!

Just in case you thought I was making a semantic point, well here it is! The Black Swan Theory is about the highest level of improbability- as in most swans are supposed to be white- unless you are in Western Australia! The same thing by the way, happens with marketers and researchers. For instance, If I tasked you to study social behaviour among entrepreneurs and VC’s at a TiE summit, you probably would start with taking a sample after reading the name tags and then testing the assumptions you made in terms of deal flow, etc, vis the study sample. You would definitely miss the Elephant in the room!

Now, having an elephant in a cocktail lounge, is a Black Swan event- it doesn’t happen often! or if it does, it should remind you of the (improbability drive of the starship Heart of Gold) the point I’m making is this, that unless you are looking outside the study sample and the restricted goals of a communications campaign, you will have missed the most important connect to the consumer.

And while news editors exist on their ability to spot the Black Swan and give it pride of place, how are you as marketers creating that hook that will sell your product, connect with the consumer, and , of course, create that indelible impact in the minds of your audience.

Think of the examples that come to mind and write in! BTW, the image above is not of a Black Swan , but a Canadian Loonie, the kind they have on the dollar, and this one I shot with my BlackBerry Pearl, in Stanley Park, Vancouver!

Here’s a new take on the New, New story on global warming and climate change! for the people who missed the newspapers- here’s the link to IPCC the joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2007. Why is it important? because this is perhaps, the first time a UN backed organisation has had so much participation and debate , on what countries should do to reduce carbon emissions.

Why do I think it is too top-down to matter? because it doesn’t have any cues into individual or corporate or group behaviour! i.e. would activists stop flying to Bali to protest that too little is being done for the environment, and it’s too late to matter? and instead switch off all electrical gadgets in protest? or would corporates, which need energy- efficiency for sustained profits, demand of their designers and architects, to re-think how buildings are made? ask basic questions, for instance, the carbon footprint of all the RCC concrete, glass, steel, bricks and board that went into the building! and then of course, the air conditioning, heating, elevators et al.

There is however, a different approach! and that is making “going Green” seem the “cool thing to do”! In mumbai, last Saturday, a group Mumbai Unplug, tried to convince the city to switch off for an hour, the fact that an energy addicted city like Mumbai even heeded the call, should tell you something about group behaviour. check out their site!
What about corporates? Can they think of going green? because it means better sustainable profits? some companies think they can - for instance, the CII- ITC center of excellence

But, is the pull strong enough to generate excitement and encourage adoption?

The jury is out! the key fact I am looking for is the connect that is sure to happen between aware and discerning consumers and the behaviour they would like to see among the brands they buy and the companies that sell them!

What, how dare you? You didn’t read the edict? Its “CONTENT IS KING”, that’s what we’ve been reading all along! the basis that people will come, if you build it! throw in as much content as you possibly can, if you can’t invite people to put in their stuff and that’s what other people will come to see, buy, ogle, and tell other people about!

wasn’t that what made youtube, created Orkut, the entire phenomenon of social networking and then business models based on eyeballs, references, and viral impact?

But, ask your self honestly, do you accept all friend requests, facebook funwall forwards, read community posts, and refer or reply to all reccomendation requests you get on LinkedIn?

You’re right! The world of Content is about to include a new old word, Context!

It’s not just about who you know, that justifies you forwarding a youtube video, or a linked in friend request, but how you know - who you know!

And the simple “spray and pray” marketing communications tactics, with great CONTENT, now becomes suspect!

It’s simple really, think about the response you expect to get when you say Hi to woman you meet at a restaurant at lunch, and when you mouth the same greeting to a woman sitting at the edge of the bar, at midnight, with a few drinks under your belt!

You get the picture! I am exploring the web to find more to share on context, which goes beyond the basics of permission marketing, and can actually re-define the entire construct of web 2.0 user behaviour, and of course, make some sense of the edgy, widgety, business models which have come up trying to make transactional plays out of this conversation.

Keep reading!

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