Deep in the Heart of the Matter

Deep in the heart of Mexico surfing last week we chased a big south swell. During the journey I learned a valuable lesson on intuition, good luck, good guidance and resourcefulness that certainly applies to the world of co-creation we are all now being thrust into.

A friend, Neal, and I spent a week surfing in a place called Ticla – more on the lessons from surfing in another post. As the swell got big, we headed an hour south to Maruata. Maruata is a small town with a great surf break but it also lies in the center of a large property of several thousand square miles owned by the indeginous people, much like an indian resevation in the U.S. Similarly, the area is under-developed, poor and known for being very tough. It’s not a place you want to have a problem.

Driving back to Ticla from Marauta we had exactly that, a big problem. It seems our radiator hose had been punctured by a rock. So, there we were, on the side of the road, 5 kilometers north of Maruata, with no water in the engine and temprature gauge red-lined. It had all the makings of an epic.

Fortunately, a few yards down a dirt road we found a shack and bought a couple of liters of water. First we needed to let the engine cool then decide to either go north to a very small town a  kilometer away or limp back to Maruata, which intuitively had a few more resources.

Once the car cooled, we slammed a liter of water in the radiator then jump in and gunned it up a hill towards Maruata. By the time we gained the summit of the first hill the gauge was on red and we were out of water. We turned off the engine and let the car coast down the back side of the hill pulling over as the next hill approached. This sequance needed to be repeated twice.

As we pulled into Maruata we approached three guys who had a few too many beers and weren’t fond of gringos. As Neal kept them occupied, I found a construction worker who had the right tools to help us mend the hose. We filled up with water and made the hour run to Ticla, entering the compound where we were staying as the sun disappeared into the Pacific. We escaped an epic with a bit of intuition, good luck, resources and guidance.

When it comes to Co-creation and Consumer Generated Content we are all deep in the heart of Mexico. It’s a wild and uncharted territory that the world of marketing is entering.

Just like the surf trip, the first step in exploring co-creation is being stoked for the intimacy of the adventure, all the while knowing you could be involved in an unplanned epic (just remember the Tahoe ads). The adventure takes a lot of intution, some good luck, good guidance and an ability to be resourceful with those tools that you have. Hopefully, these tools us the ability to move fast to avoid an epic.

As many companies are awash information, they have too many resources. Hence, they don’t really know their customers on any personal level to make good decisions on how to start the journey. Technology has provided the tools to know what people buy and where they buy it in excruciating detail, yet all of this data cannot answer the question of why people consume the products they do.

You can talk a lot about customer service and the importance of customers in your business, but unless you are out there on the adventure, on the edge of an epic, and engaged in a real dialogue with the right people, it’s impossible to know them well enough to deliver them the products they really want.

Today, people (consumers, but I hate that word. People doesn’t seem quite right, either) expect to be more involved in the purchases they make, forcing companies to seek out those who can help them create relevant products. Customers are demanding that companies employ a bottom-up strategy of not only listening to them but also giving them the ability to co-create the products they buy and the marketing they do.

The act of co-creation lies along a spectrum. For some people, it is feeling that a customer service representative took their concerns seriously and responded to them for others, co-creation means using a company’s resources to create their own products and media. Consumer Generated Content is certainly on the far end of the spectrum but is exciting and is driving more people to get involved.

It’s good to remember Co-creation and Consumer Generated Content is an adventure that, if taken, can help you find new vitality and passion in the relationship with your customers. While fraught with danger, no one is going to die on this adventure.

Stay excited and have some fun!

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