Pascal Rossini

In a world of selective consummation which is becoming more and more demanding, the possibility to try and taste products is an effective way to offer a unique and personalized experience to consumers. Coupled with a social strategy giving the possibility to have your network profit from your own discoveries is one of the strongest tendencies in relational marketing.

The example of Wineside is interesting as it demonstrates that innovation, so current in the digital world, can be transposed into the real world with simple ideas.

Wineside offers small samples of prestigious wines in tasting flasks, conditioned in a controlled atmosphere.

"A feat which avoids all degradation or evolution of the product. The flavors are trapped and ready to be revealed only… in the mouth! "

An elegant and natural manner to promote test tastings during different types of occasions such as trips, planes, events, companies, etc…

Tryvertising joins the Trysumer that I have already talked about on this blog.

Source: Trendwatching

Social and media exposure seems to be maximized for bloggers, as it's possible to follow them geographically, know the precise place they are in, their shared agenda, their Twitter, etc… Despite all this, few share their private life, the changes, separations, and new relationships…

Are these two clashing extremes? The need to be seen in the eyes of the world, and yet hide one’s emotional and love lives? A real paradox.

These reflections came to me after reading Martin Varsavsky’s blog post "Separation and new relationship". He positively shows that this type of courageously expressed information gives a more human dimension to the blogosphere.

My readers often send me emails asking me for examples on the effects of new forms of marketing which will be adopted in the future.

I would like to answer them all by giving them some simple and comprehensible rules :

It’s not because the coffee is better that customers are going to flood in

It’s only the place the place they are going to drink it in and the capacity to make them socialize

It’s not the quality work which an artist produces that will ensure his success

It’s because his work will correspond to a frame of mind

Luxury goods don’t need advertising to sell themselves

They need to reflect a lifestyle

Through these three examples, it is clear that it’s not the product that is king, but the consoactors. The quality, implementation, and even the service are secondary criteria that have little or no value.

It’s what we call:
SMI - Social Marketing Intelligence

Examples of well-known traditional and high-tech companies that are subject to the SMI: Apple, Starbucks, Red Bull, Rolex, and…

Flickr photo by MarkKelley

There was a time when social media wasn’t an opportunity for advertisers, with the usual resistance that we have come to know on behalf of companies and  their advertising strategy advisors. Web 2.0 was a wave linked to a fashion phenomenon, and elitist snobbery.

For many observers, content generation created by private individuals did not have any future because it couldn’t get past the amateur stage. This amateurism could only encourage advertisers to flee from the creation of social value. Despite this, and with the explosion of audience in the different social channels, companies must understand that these communication means are here to stay – and that they are one of the keys of future commercialization of any consumer good.

It should be explained that the advertising formats that will be used on these media will in no way resemble those we know today. They will tend to valorize the relations and conversations around a product rather than passively boasting its merits.

It’s about creating a communication space which kicks-off conversations through networks to learn and share convictions or impressions on commercial offers. These offers answer a vital or playful need. Thanks to new technologies, the useful information is automatically transported wherever you are, be you resident or nomad.

It’s with these fundamentals that conversational marketing is fitting naturally and durably into our cultural environment. We are more attentive to experience feedback from our community than sterile or voluntarily provoking speech on behalf of marketers who please themselves in creativity and quirky egocentrism.

Conversational marketing is one of the tactical directions to explore in social media. Services like Twitter or Seesmic will amplify this phenomenon and it's right to draw its outline today.

The old saying makes sense in this case:

"Follow the current when it increases, because tomorrow the waters in the river of consumption will stagnate."

If you base yourself on the social layers used by marketers to describe different targeting levels within a population, it is interesting to project this data into different sectors such as the Internet and Social Life.

The social stratums diagram

First up, the Internet market: There are 6,676,120,288 people in the world in 2008 of which 1,407,724,920 are connected, meaning roughly 21%. If we establish an average of active web-users, the percentage drops importantly, and only 140 million users who regularly connect are left, so 2%.

It’s with these 2% of the population that Google, Amazon, eBay and the others are valued at more on the market than certain large International groups that have been active for more than a century. Therefore, it’s easy to imagine the Internet’s huge potential, and it’s doubtlessly what gives value to the stock markets.

Even more interesting is the way that the population is spread over the social stratums of the diagram above. Probably most or even the majority is situated in the highest levels such as Achievers, Emulators and Integrateds. By analyzing this data, we observe that the Internet is still an emerging niche market despite its success.

In the sphere of private life, it is instructive to position oneself in this diagram. What level do we belong to? And from what positioning, while remaining the most objective possible? What will my social values and style of life be? It’s following this basic model that social networks are built, by affinity of taste and leisure, but of social belonging also. The diagram below shows the same logic, 1% of the population creates value, 10% participates to increase this value, and 100% profit from it, or can profit from it.

Source : Bradley Horowitz

In the sphere of loving relationships, it happens very often that the loved one comes from a distant stratum from one’s own. For example, an Integrated meets a Sustainer, as such meeting possibilities are 100 times superior then in the Integrateds’ own social layer. These cases are numerous, and cause important damage leading to divorce and relational unhappiness.

The "dopamine" hormone is the main culprit for these uncontrollable effects. I recommend you read the book, the website, and listen to Helen Fischer’s conference at TED 2006 to understand ancestral mechanisms which define our amorous relationships for better or worse.

Enjoy :