citizen Evangelist

Nokia is in the midst of an exciting new strategy: Getting their customers directly involved in the product development process. In an article published today, it is obvious that Nokia sees the value of customer collaboration in the product development life-cycle. In support of this strategy, Nokia leverages a Beta Labs site which invites users to provide unfiltered and direct feedback to the Research and Development teams inside Nokia.

According to Oliver Thyman, a participant in Nokia’s Idea Generation Workshop and active blogger:

Working with your customer is something where the world is going to. As a company you cannot close yourself off from the world anymore. If you’re locked in your ivory tower and there is discussion about you going on, it makes sense to get out there and take part in that conversation.

Tommi Vilkamo is the host and manager behind Nokia’s Beta Labs and has a wonderfully challenging opportunity in soliciting community feedback, engaging those participants, and keeping the process moving. With 1 Billion Nokia Customers, there is bound to be some interesting dynamics that emerge.

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South by Southwest Interactive 2008 has come to its end. The event had its highs and its lows, and my mind is spinning with all of the information gained.

Over the next few days, I’ll do my best to pull my notes together and share key pieces of insight and information I pulled from the esteemed panelists and speakers. The primary themes I found were those of collaboration, community, authenticity, and aesthetics.

The conference started on the disappointing side for me, but by Day 2 I realized that the first few sessions were not representative of the remaining. I’m already looking forward to next year.

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I am almost completely ignorant when it comes to anything dealing with Soaps. I have been trained almost exclusively by P&G and obviously have missed out on a variety of options and details involved in the possible options of determining the best soap to use for the job.Thanks to a recent shopping experience with my wife, my eyes were finally opened to my obvious deficiency in product knowledge. Soap types, essential oils, natural scents, and base ingredients were all options that needed to be considered in this particular product search.

While looking through the variety of product offerings, this packaging struck my eye.

The reference to “No Fake Crap” is too edgy for most producers and consumers, but I found it refreshing. No hyperbole, direct, few words. No Fake Crap.There is often a fine line between representing facts and creating an image of the experience associated with using any product.

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Ben McConnel Announced today the formation of the Society for Word of Mouth. I was so excited to see the formation of a group that is focused on the right aspects of Word of Mouth that I was compelled to jump into the fray:

View my page on Society for Word of Mouth

So many of the groups that I’ve come across are looking short-cuts and and artificial means to get awareness of a product or service. At the end of the day, these programs may get buzz and exposure, and that may create certain short-term benefits to the organizations who leverage these strategies, but not with out consequences. The holy grail in any strategy is providing real value to a real person… and doing so in a way that so uniquely meets their specific needs that they can’t help but to share those experiences with others.This is not easy.

This is not accomplished over night.

But, this is the most valuable achievement that can be made. I’m looking forward to participating in this group of like minded individuals.

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Time and time again I’ve worked with organizations bringing new products to market and time and time again the expectations of the product are mis-aligned with what the realities of the product. The “blame” if you feel compelled to assign any blame can be assigned to the sales person or the marketing team for mis-representing the product, to the product development team for incomplete, missing, or broken features, or on the customer for not understanding the product.

At the end of the day, assigning blame is a foolish pursuit. At the end of the day, the fact remains that someone had hopes that were unfulfilled. The question now faced is: what are you going to do about it?

You have:

• a product (or service)
• a user or customer
• a revenue opportunity (or risk, depending how you want to look at it)

Seth Godin believes your customers are watching what you do over listening to what you say. Patrick Williams asserts that you need to spend more time listening and understanding what your customers and prospects want and need. Alliance Science adds that you should be the first place your customers go to find a solution.

As I stated yesterday, much of this comes down to trust and communication.

Isn’t it time to get a real dialog started? Provide something that someone wants or needs and you struggle selling it. Treat your customers like they matter and they won’t distrust you. Do the right thing for your customers and they will do the right thing for you.

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