Redefine “Conversation” to Better Facilitate Consideration … and Purchase

The Conversation of the Future?

Over the holidays, my 12 year-old son went shopping for a present for his mom on his own. After browsing around in Borders bookstore, he sent me a text which listed the things he was considering. I suggested he send me a photo of his favorite option. He did, I approved, and I can still recall the feeling as if I participated in the decision, even though he was exercising his independence. What a great experience and a nice connective moment for us both.

This got me thinking about what it means — or doesn’t mean — to have a conversation in an age of mobile ubiquity.

Humans have long enjoyed the art of the conversation. These days, we “talk” in many ways, including in person, over the phone, texting and tapping social media applications. What if brands spent less time prying their way into those conversations, and more time adding value by making it easier for us to converse about our brands and products?

Social Media types love to use the word “conversation.” So much so that now the phrase “Participate in the conversation” is cliché —and even derided.

Call me old school, but I think it’s important to revisit the notion of conversation before SMS texting, Twitter, Facebook and other non-verbal platforms. Merriam-Webster defines conversation as “oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas.” In other words: talking; dialogue; banter; chin wag.

Remember the good old days when you caught up with friends by placing a phone call? You could hear their happiness, or sadness, laughter, inflection. Even better, how about a face to face encounter, say lunch or a drink, where one can truly ascertain mood, nuance, and body language. These, combined with environmental factors allow both parties to reap the rewards of a meaningful conversation. Commenting on someone’s Facebook status or twittering 140 characters of #thoughtsonthetoilet doesn’t replicate the true definition of conversation. Perhaps there is a narrative created by the stream of comments and tweets, but how connective is it compared with a traditional multi-sensory conversation?

Or should we redefine it?

Or, perhaps this new age just means that we need to redefine the idea of conversation so that it’s not limited to “oral” but to also include visual and text inputs. With this expanded take on things, brands can better understand the role of public conversations and do a better job of facilitating. Again, Merriam-Webster tells us that to facilitate means “to make easier.”

Start with a basic understanding of how people are having conversations when thinking about brands and making purchases in a store. Last week, Motorola released their 2009 Holiday Shopper Report. According to the study, this past holiday season 64% of Gen Y used their mobile device for shopping IN-STORE¹. Gen Y are the generation that has redefined our view of a traditional conversation, and they are almost twice as likely as Boomers (33%) to use their mobile phone while shopping. These are the types of primary conversations they’re having:

• 38% called a friend to ask their opinion about a considered item purchase
• 31% texted a friend to ask their opinion about a considered item purchase
• 23% sent an image to a friend to ask their opinion about a considered item purchase

The types of secondary conversations are:

• 21% used a mobile phone to access the Internet for product reviews or other product information
• 21% used a mobile phone to access the Internet to compare prices
• 14% searched for a coupon relevant to a considered item purchase

10% actually made a purchase using their mobile phone while they were standing in a store (and presumably a purchase with a competitor).

While the report doesn’t clarify the implication of that last statistic, retailers can either ignore what consumers do in their house, or they can strategically embrace these growing mobile behaviors and make it easier for consumers to have these conversations with the objective of converting consideration to purchase.

This seems like a pretty simple strategy to execute. Some thoughts on how:

• Display products so that they are easy to photograph.
• Leverage POS signage to encourage sharing by creating text codes for picture sharing or accessing specific product reviews.
• Empower sales associates to encourage image capture and MMS sharing. Salesperson: “You look great in that outfit; I could take your picture and so you can send it to someone for a second opinion.”

And with new solutions providers developing share utilities for shoppers (e.g. www.inmarkit.com), it is increasingly easy to create wish lists and capture data not only on what people are sharing, but to monitor the conversations. “Participation” has potential to be meaningful and relevant, not intrusive and promotional.

¹ Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions: Business and Market Intelligence. 2009 Retail Holiday Season Shopper Study, Key Findings Report – January 2010.

This is also posted on Ogilvy’s re:direct.

Twitter Experiment #1: My “Twittercation”

Twitter is exciting. It’s trendy. It’s unique. But is it useful? Or, is it just another Internet time drain? That depends solely on how you use it. Twitter is about the here and how. It’s a snapshot of one’s immediate present. On Twitter, you’re only as relevant as your last Tweet.

I joined Twitter in October last year and immediately I didn’t intuitively understand what I was supposed to do. I kept asking the question, “Who cares?”

Then, in January, when a US Airways plane crash landed in the Hudson River, Twitter suddenly became both relevant and a lot more ubiquitous. Almost as suddenly as the plane made an emergency landing in the river, a snapshot of that frightening incident was sent around the globe via Twitter. It was almost an hour after the impact before the “traditional” news media was able to capture the amazing scene on film. The plane crash and Twitter made the news that day. It was time to take notice and see what I was missing.

I revisited my life without Twitter. But, the question still nagged: How do I make Twitter relevant for me? As I tell my DePaul students repeatedly: experimentation is the key to understanding Web 2.0.

So last week, my kids were off school and we decided to take a last minute family vacation to Florida. Road trip. 21 hours one way from Chicago to Clearwater Beach, FL. Using my Facebook status, I asked people to follow our vacation via Twitter. I called it a “Twittercation.” (The term has been used to suggest taking a break from Twitter and blogging in general, but I was hoping to coin a new definition).

I was giddy with excitement and posted updates every few hours as we set off. As each new “follower” joined the journey, I felt compelled to keep my Twittercation tweets coming. I gained 15 new followers. I installed Twitterberry on my Crackberry. I even used Twitter to get help along the way on how to load photos using Twitpics. Each response – or re-tweet (RT) – I received made me feel connected; like my journey was relevant. I was connected and connecting.

Eventually, we arrived at our destination and for me it was as though the “event” I had created was over. I no longer wanted to tweet my status. I was tired. I wanted to relax and stay away from technology. Ironically, I wanted a Twittercation.

What I learned about Twitter:

1. You need a camera phone. My camera is broken. My event would have been so much more interesting with photos (although I did load one of a sunset in Indianapolis, more on that in # 3). Twitpics is a great application and I just saw a Tweet from Michael Kantrow that Tweetdeck now includes 12 seconds of video recording. The opportunity to capture and share a moment is relevant and cool. I saw amazing road signs with outrageous messages juxtaposed to one another. We went snorkeling with Manatee in the Crystal River. Or kayaking in the bay in search of dolphins. These moments in time would have made great Tweets, but sadly, I could not capture them.
   
   
2. Facts are useful. Progress is boring. As I was being followed, I was also a follower. I have noticed after a week of active Twittering that some folks share useful information. Like this one from Philip Greenfield who was attending the GSMA Mobile Congress in Barcelona, “Josh Silverman. 350 K new users on Skype every day. 8% of all international minutes are on Skype.” Useful information that makes me want to learn more about the Skype growth figures. On the other hand, I don’t care that someone just pulled into the parking lot at Tesco or just went through security at the airport. I am not convinced this is the appropriate medium for communicating with your partner about the progress of your day. That’s what IM and email and phone calls are for.
   
   
3. Tags work. As I mentioned, I uploaded a photo when we passed through Indianapolis. I tagged that photo “Indianapolis” and I got a response to my Tweet from brainiac@hughru “Eat, sleep, breath, walk, talk INDY at CircleCity.org. Sign-up for a free account and start sharing with and about Indy!” Clever application for promoting a business. Marketers can make these applications relevant.
   
   
4. Tweets vs Status. Personally, I prefer to keep my Facebook status separate from the Tweets. For me, a Tweet best captures a single thought, experience or moment in time. It’s more immediate. It’s connective, but boasts a sharper, more factual response to the question “What are you doing?” A Status reflects what “is” about you and more often than not, it is emotionally descriptive and personally connective.
   
   
5. Twitter is a mobile application. This is the most exciting part. Twitter is made for mobile and where it is the most interesting. Mobile is where the big opportunity lies in the future for web 2.0. Facebook, and most other social networking sites, are significantly stronger when viewed on a browser, not a mobile device. That’s ok, as there is room for both.

There is plenty more to explore. I encourage you to conduct your own experiments with Twitter, Skype, FriendFeed, well, the list just keeps going and growing. Bottom line, experimentation is the key to understanding web 2.0.

Transformed Santa won’t deliver for Palm this Christmas

T’is the season for a new twist on Santa.

Credit should be given to Palm centro for the transformative effect their phone has on Santa Claus. Our traditional Santa discovers the Palm centro smartphone and apparently a whole new world is opened up for him. He cuts his hair, ditches the shabby suit and antiquated sleigh and becomes a hip (hop) character named Claus (which rhymes with “blouse”), smartly dressed in a designer suit traveling to places warm and sunny – far away from the North Pole – which he easily finds using his GPS navigation app on his centro (and presumably a little magic).

There are a lot of spots in this campaign, each supporting a key feature of the smartphone from music to photos. For example, the Rooftop DJ spot opens with Claus in front of an enraptured circle of young people where he’s discussing his amazement that he can keep his “list” on the centro rather than those “big parchment scrolls.” Claus, where the hell have you been for the last 12 years? I mean, didn’t you deliver the original Palm Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000 to tech geeks everywhere for Christmas between 1996 and 1999?

He’s likeable, this Claus character, although I prefer the fat, jolly old man Coca Cola made famous; or at least the tech savvy version of Santa in his Grotto managing his naughty and nice list on his IBM ThinkPad – a brilliant print execution created by Ogilvy & Mather in the ‘90s. (If anyone has the jpg of that ad, please post it).

This campaign, however, is not that well executed online. If you search “Palm centro”, for example, you don’t get a link to the official campaign site (http://www.palm.com/claus/). The organic results direct you to people like me blogging about the campaign – and it’s not all good. There’s no paid search results that I have seen. Why spend all this money on television and not add a little more to the place where people will ultimately go to form an opinion about this device. Seems really short sighted.

Claus has his own Facebook page too with just over 1,600 friends (http://www.facebook.com/claus). For all of the advertising money being spent, I would have hoped for at least another zero, if not two. That would be a better Christmas present for the brand manager and the agency. Even worse, if you search “Santa Claus Centro” in Facebook, you find some rather pornographic groups based in Santiago, Chile who apparently like to show their raw materials.

Palm did a great job with the narrative hook on this one, but they haven’t detailed the threads too well. Beyond the ads, this story falls flat. And even at $49.99, I’m not sure it will deliver what I am sure Palm wants for Christmas – sales in a very competitive iPhone dominated space. I’m keeping my eye on the Blackberry Storm, thanks.