John Winsor

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!

More on CGC

Julie Bosman has a good overview on Consumer Generated Content today in the NY Times. It's worth a read.

It Starts with Listening

Nigel Hollis has a thoughtful post on examining the power and implications of Consumer Generated Content and co-creation on brands as it relates to the much discussed Chevy Tahoe campaign that's worth a read. In it he says:

...listening is the first step to successfully leveraging WOM. Listening to what people are saying about your brand will help you understand what ignites their passion and therefore how you can successfully engage them in the future.

I certainly agree that listening is where it all starts but listening is such a loaded word. Where do you begin? I have written a few posts in the past on listening. In one, I suggested that there are really six steps in the listening process:

The overall goal of listening is to see patterns where others see chaos, and to make meaning that is well grounded in both experience and intuition. To achieve this goal, you have to capture the Vox Populi, or the voice of the people. Here are some things to remember:

Concentrate – It is very difficult for companies to concentrate. There are spreadsheets to fill out; there are sales to be made and the bottom line to look after. How can anybody take the time to concentrate on listening with so much to do? Yet concentration is absolutely essential to effective listening. Be

Free From Anxiety – This is, possibly, the hardest thing for a company to do. As a businessperson you know how hard it is to not focus, always, on the bottom line. It is hard to not be anxious about getting a product or service to market. Likewise, it is also hard not to think about accomplishing specific goals when you are talking to a customer. This, however, is the only way to have a successful dialogue in which you are able to hear clearly.

Imagine – Aren’t all great companies started by someone with an amazing imagination? Look at Apple: it was Steven Jobs and his imagination that created the personal computer that fueled a revolution. Likewise, Nike’s Phil Knight spent his first few years selling shoes out of the back of a station wagon. They were both out there with their customers, listening and learning. They were imagining ways to solve problems, whether for computer users or runners. Every great company has a heritage of myth and imagination surrounding its start.

Empathize – At the foundation of most great companies is a group of people that embodies the passion and commitment of their customers and has a vested interest in doing things right; in essence, empathy can be defined as the ability to relate to customers in an intuitive manner. The most straightforward way to attain this is to be a passionate user of your company’s products.

Understand – Understanding is not about simply downloading a bunch of numbers and statistics and then analyzing them from behind a desk. In this context, it means feeling an impact in the heart and soul. It is an understanding that comes from experiencing what's really happening.

Love – While many businesspeople might laugh, this is the start of great listening. Great companies don’t just like their customers – they love their customers, and their employees too. Look again at Nike and Apple. Both companies are on crusades with their customers to change the world. And their customers can feel the love. They recognize that these companies really care about them and want to spend time with them. It’s all about letting people talk and tell their stories without any screens or interruptions. It’s about slowing down enough to have the time to engage people in a passionate dialogue while in the context of their lives.

And, this all assumes that you are listening to the right voices.

The Revolution is Upon Us

I’ve gotten a few notes from people that have their doubts about the power of consumer generated content, saying that it television didn’t destroy radio or the internet has completely destroyed either. Yet, one only has to look as far as MySpace to recognize that the power of content generation has shifted into the hands of the end-user.

Saul Hansell’s overview of MySpace’s rise in the New York Times stated that the site is now ranked second in number of page views, with 28.8 billion last month, only behind Yahoo. Combine MySpace’s popularity with video sites, such as YouTube and CurrentTV, and you’ve got more going on than a small trend. The lines between consumer and producer have blurred.

Besides Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. many media companies are reacting to consumer generated content similar to what that Grant McCracken describes as their reaction to blogs (which is another powerful example of consumer generated content, in itself):

Stage 1. Benign neglect

Stage 2. Lordly disdain

Stage 3. Irritation plus Obfuscation

Stage 4. Panic! Attack!  Panic Attack!

As the dynamic changes happening all around us continue to accelerate, traditional media companies and brands, in general, must take steps toward building a deeper relationship with these newly empowered producer/consumers. In this new era, it is the creative citizens of a community — the people and the companies — that will survive and thrive by co-creating honest, original and relevant media and products.

Create A Firefox Ad

Firefox is asking for fans to create ads with Firefox Flicks in another great example of Co-Creation and CGC (Consumer Generated Content).

Props for Squidoo

Squidoo, Seth Godin's new venture, received nice coverage in the New York Times today. If you're interested in the evolution of CGC (Consumer Generated Content) and Co-Creation, it's certainly worth a read.