DR|ADV » board of customers

Breaking up: advertiser and consumer

Wim Andréa — Sun, 20 May 2007 07:11:24 +0000

The Break Up
Uploaded by geertdesager

Now this is a rather strange new campaign by Microsoft. Although the company itself is behaving like the advertiser in this clip a lot, at least they seem to understand what is happening nowadays. The consumer in the clip says she doesn’t want a ‘funny’ relation. But the clip in itself relates on ‘funnyness’ a lot. And let’s face is: this is advertising for Microsoft’s software, isn’t it? So, I’m left rather puzzeled here… Is this the new wave: showing you know what is happening in the world, but not acting to it? Or is this just a traditional advertising approach to “markets are conversations”? I’m afraid it is…

Dell takes customers seriously

Wim Andréa — Wed, 02 May 2007 08:06:23 +0000

There is a lot of buzz around Dell nowadays. With Mr Dell Himself back in the saddle and speculations about Dell leaving their trusted ‘Direct Sales’-concept (they might sell their PC’s via bricks-and-mortar-outlets!), one of their initiatives is not in the floodlight. That’s a pity because Dell’s IdeaStorm initiative deserves more attention in my opinion. Via a special website Dell invites customers and prospects to vote on future product development. Via Dell IdeaStorm new Dell PC’s will be available with the open source OS Ubuntu. At the moment of writing people already contributed 4.510 ideas for Dell to consider. These ideas are discussed on the website and people can also vote on them and see what Dell is planning to fulfill in the (near) future.
This seems another good example of companies who actually start dialogs with their prospect and client groups in order to design the future in cooperation. No more abstract focus groups with small (often non-representative) amounts of customers. But a realistic opportunity for all to participate. Within ARA (my workplace) we propagate this approach as the next evolutionary step in Direct Marketing (we call it Dialogical Thinking (‘Dialogisch Denken‘ in Dutch). Another good example of this approach was giving by John Moore (former Starbucks topdog) in his excellent essay for ChangeThis. Download that PDF and read all about the principles of a ‘Board of Customers’.

Introducing the Board of Customers

Wim Andréa — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 08:49:42 +0000

In response to Howard Schulzâ€™s (Starbucks’ owner) memo citing his concern over the direction Starbucks is headed, John Moore, a former long-time marketer at Starbucks, enlists the â€˜Starbucks Board of Customersâ€™ (i.e. readers of Mooreâ€™s blog and Starbucks customers) to propose which changes the company must make to maintain (reclaim?) its integrity. This is a must-read! Apart from the Starbucks-focus, the principle of a Board of Customers is so interesting. This way of thinking takes so called dialogue marketing out of the lab and into the street. Right where it belongs… So, take my advice: download the PDF from ChangeThis. And read it!