I was recently fairly harsh to a couple of mass marketing blog attempts by McDonald's and Procter & Gamble. More than one reader took me to task saying I would be more credible if I toned down.
Of course my first instinct was to prove that I was right and to defend my edgy style. But, in the end, I swallowed a pride pill and took my own advice to listen--really listen--to what sincere bloggers were telling me. They were saying that while I might have useful advice to give corporate and mass marketing companies but I was damaging my credibility by shouting at them.
They were right of course, and I've tried recently to state arguments on this blog from the same balanced tone that Robert and I used in writing Naked Conversations.
The fact that large corporations and mass merchants are dipping their toes into blogging's sea of change is good news in a great many ways. The pioneers of blogging should hang out a sign saying, "Welcome, big guys. Seriously."
But we who have perhaps overdosed on the glories of blogging get possessive over this channel even as we try to evangelize it. We are fearful that the big guys, the clever marketing and advertising folk will game the system, will start cramming it with the kind of crap that screwed up email, web sites and so any other "message deliver systems" because they do not yet comprehend that this is not a message delivery system, but a conversational mechanism.
And candidly, just about every mass merchant's attempt I've seen so far--at least from American-based corporations has failed because they are filled the kind of gimmicks they use in advertising--loyalty rewards, characters, fake comments and other gimmicks. None of these will gain much for them in terms of the relationships, loyalty and word of mouth generation they want to get in the blogosphere. At least I hope not.
On a global scale, there are several examples of mass merchants who have done remarkable things with blogs. France's ME LeClerc, the head of the leading independent retailers association blogs personally on his views of life and politics, showing his readers the heart and soul of the person running the association. In Japan, Nissan let a product manager blog about their new city car, in the first person present voice. This was unheard of in Japanese culture. Yet it worked and the car is a success. Even P&G had a success in japan. They asked housewives to vote on what they wanted in a new detergent and then they created it. The product, I am told, is a success in the market.
Most mass merchants have yet to learn that the power of the blog is in the simple, interactive conversation between real people in the company and in the market the people in the marketplace whom they'd like to attract and retain as customers.
They will. To use a quote from my favorite book, "They will try and fail, try and fail again, then finally succeed." They'll be made wiser for the experience. And their customers will be the ones to make them wiser. That's what happened over at Vichy, l'Oreal skin care division, who started with a character blog that got shouted down by French women, then came back with sonmething mreauthentic and received cheers from the very same audience.
Even the Juicy Fruit people, whose brief contribution to the blogosphere is often singled out as the worst blog ever can learn from blogging. But instead of deceitful and lame gimmicks, they could start a blogging authored for a real person, who could learn from audiences--I'm sure their are many people passionate about gum, although I am not among them. What's the best wrapper? Is gum better in a stick or another shape? Is sweeter better? How important is long-lasting? How do you get gum off of clothing? And so on.
Sooner or later the people at Juicy Fruit, P&G, McDonald's and elsewhere will get clueful. They have lots of time, money and patience. And it is encouraging to see them dabbling their toes in the water, sidling up to ankle depth. They may have entered the ocean at the wrong point, but they'll keep coming back until they get immersed.
While I continue to harbor concerns I think this is a good thing.
And I'm sorry I shouted.
