Following my interview with Tomi Ahonen a few weeks ago, I've been reading the new book Communities Dominate Brands he co-wrote with Alan Moore.
If you've only got time for a top-line opinion and you're interested in marketing, here it is; very good, you should read it.
Here's a slightly more meaty review.
Unlike the scope of Tomi's previous books, which are focused on mobile, this one has a much wider scope, encompassing a look at everything that's happening in media, blogging, mobile, marketing and online communities. If you're a regular reader of this blog, many of the themes and case studies will already be familiar to you - indeed, I joked with Tomi that if I was to write another book at the moment, it would have been this one!
That's not to imply in any way that you won't learn anything from the book—far from it. It also does a very fine job of bringing these themes together and making sense of the big picture.
It's very hard to summarise a closely-worded 250 page book into a blog post. But if I had to pick the most important conclusion it would be that the days of traditional, advertising-led, interruptive marketing, dominated by big media, are over. The ROI from this type of activity is in rapid decline now, with swathes of big business in denial—led by the ad agencies and the big media owners. Pretty soon they'll move on to the anger stage of the grieving process, like we see in the music industry.
New marketing is emerging and it's about dialogue, or engagement. Companies need to engage with their customers in an authentic, honest and open manner. One of the many case studies in book is the infamous Kryptonite Bike Locks, which I've covered before. While it was certainly true that their locks could be opened with a Bic pen, what enraged people and caused such a problem was that the company ignored them.
As Hugh McLeod so memorably put it:
DAY ONE:
KRYPTONITE: Our bike locks are the best.
THE MARKET: Yes, your bike locks are the best.DAY TWO:
KRYPTONITE: Our bike locks are the best.
THE MARKET: Yes, your bike locks are still the best.DAY THREE:
KRYPTONITE: Our bike locks are the best.
THE MARKET: Ummm... yeah I'm sure they are, but what's all this about some recent video on the net that's supposed to show how you can crack your locks in 10 seconds using a simple Bic ballpoint pen?
Article comments
1 - A Marketing Professional
Unfortunately for Mr. Ahonen, I happen to know a bit about communities, and I also happen to have been a professional editor in the past. This book comes off as a bit ridiculous because it is badly written, has typos on nearly every page, and ignores the rules of grammar. If Ahonen can't be bothered even proofreading his book why should I be bothered reading it? I found it mildly offensive how little care was taken with this book. It comes across as something written over a weekend and with no organisation or genuine understanding of the material. I guess we shouldn't be surprised: the publisher (http://www.futuretext.com/) doesn't have much credibility. In fact, there is a misspelling in the browser title of the page: Convergance. (The right spelling is convergence in case you didn't know.)
This book has some fine ideas, but nothing new or earth-shaking; I would rate it a weak attempt to establish thought leadership. To be fair, the concepts dealt with are in fact compelling: communities and social network analysis are becoming more and more important in communications and marketing. However, this is not the book to read if you want to learn about social networks, communities or branding. Instead, try Emergence by Steven Johnson, Linked by Barabasi, and Wally Olins'On Brand.
All the best,
a reader