pdf versionby Lois Kelly 2007

With consumers in control, marketing is no longer about telling and selling – as Procter & Gamble’s chief marketing executive Jim Stengel pointed out during his remarks recently to the 4A’s Media Conference. Marketing is now more about dialogue and conversations.

Seems like no-brainer. So why aren’t more companies further along in conversational marketing? These five obstacles most commonly trip companies up on their road from “talking at” to “talking with” people.

1. Tied up in tag lines: Companies spend an inordinate amount of time and money on tag lines, vision statements and elevator descriptions. While these have a purpose, they don’t help people talk about your company, product or issue. They are directional and descriptive and most are written to be read – not to be talked about or to provoke meaningful conversations. Today it’s better focusing on uncovering ideas, points of view, and advice that are talk-worthy than crafting a pithy tag line. If people find it difficult to talk about your company, they won’t talk about your company.


2. Nothing to talk about. It’s fairly easy to talk about our products, our companies, and our strategies. But those topics are more interesting to internal audiences than external. The reality is that most companies get stuck trying to find interesting ideas to talk about – ideas that spark customers, employees, analysts to say, “Gee, that’s interesting. Tell me more.” There’s a proliferation of “talk” channels – blogs, podcasts, Webinars, industry conferences – but they are of little value without engaging ideas. The “talk idea” gap in many companies is more like a Grand Canyon, but it’s an easy problem to solve because there are nine themes that everyone likes to talk about and hear about: contrarian/counterintuitive, aspirational, David. V. Goliath, anxieties, avalanche about to fall, glitz and glam, how to, personal stories, and seasonal/event-related ideas.
3. Don’t know how to really listen: If marketing is a conversation, then at least half the job is listening. But this is a new skill for marketers. By listening I don’t mean doing market research, but operationalizing how your company directly engages with customers and recognizes and acknowledges their views. By listening you find out what people think about your company, how to improve, where to add new products or services, and how to turn customers into advocates. More importantly, research from the social networking company Communispace has found that people are much more likely to recommend and buy your products when they feel listened to.


4. Alpha fraidy cats and committee mush: Companies are rich in alpha fraidy cats who don’t want to let go of control and participate in the new customer – in – control world. These fraidy cats are the smart, persuasive, domineering and insecure types who quickly kill new ideas until there are enough best practices, ROI metrics and case studies to prove an idea is “solid”. A related obstacle is that committees get together to develop ideas worth talking about but end up watering down the ideas so much that they are “mush” and nothing most people would want to talk about. A lot of messaging motion but no business movement.
5. Oops, we forgot the communications people: Many communications people have the insights and expertise into what makes for genuine, interesting conversations – usually much more so than marketing professionals. The latter have been well trained in “telling” techniques like advertising, direct, and promotions. Few have the right communications expertise on their staffs, so they’re still stuck in their old ways. (As an aside, some of the best communications people come from cause-related non-profits and political backgrounds, where developing points-of view and talking with influencers is essential to winning and getting grants needed for survival.)

In his new song Paul McCartney sings that “there’s a fine line between recklessness and courage.”  Not embracing conversational marketing is reckless because it puts a barrier up between you and your customers. Listening and adopting a conversational communications approach, however, requires just a small bit of courage.

And what CEO or CMO wants to be seen as lacking courage?

Lois Kelly is the author of the new book, Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing, and a founding partner of Foghound. To join in a regular conversation about new marketing tools, tips and company successes and bombs, stop by Lois’ blog.