How to talk to the ‘bubble generation,’ the Nokia marketing department should read this
By Stefan Constantinescu on Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 at 5:37 PM PST In Telecommunications
Propelled by email, IMS, texts and shopcasts, the BubbleGen
consumers are able to detect emerging trends at the speed of light.
Moreover, their ability to viralize new trends among themselves means
that fads will soon come, grow and disappear in a highly
time-compressed lifecycle. This puts enormous pressure on even the
fastest manufacturers and retailers. Where once a Gap could spin
inventory in eight or nine weeks, or Target could dabble in mass-niches
and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) could issue a new mobile phone a couple of times a year, the
emerging reality calls for the acceleration of everything. Nothing is
fast enough for the new connected consumer.What does this mean for mainstream marketers? Simply put: you are
too slow. You have to rethink the consumer experience from a
time-to-gratification standpoint. That means speeding up the entire
ecosystem, from product development to distribution. After all, when
you get used to discovering, test-driving and downloading what you want
in a T1 instant, the analog world is just dumbed-down dial up by
comparison.Source: Tom Bomb
I encourage anyone into marketing to check out this post because it’s very relevant to the goal I’m trying to accomplish. What’s hot or not changes weekly, and this is coming from a college student. If you haven’t heard about “flipping the funnel,†then shame on you for not being up to date on the latest marketing trends. The premise is simple: let passionate people connect with other passionate people, and they will do the marketing for you.
I honestly don’t think I’m the only one out there who wants to know how the Nokia 8800 was made. Who designed it? How long did it take? Why are the features it has the way they are? I’m also sure a lot of people are also wondering about the Symbian operating system, what’s in the pipeline, and who can I, as a passionate user, contact to make certain feature requests.
The entire point of this blog is hope to one day recreate the Channel 9 experience at Nokia. I want the employees to blog; I want to do impromptu interviews with the people behind the products. Most people know Nokia by the logo; I want people to know Nokia by their favorite employee. Whether it’s the guy who designed the themes API, the person who does phone design, or the people who develop the camera phones that bar none are the best in this industry currently.
If the head of marketing hasn’t read Robert Scoble’s book: Naked Conversations, then send me an email and I’ll send you my copy, my treat.
You are correct in your assessment of the power of coversational, voice-to-voice, face-to-face marketing. I hope the suits at Nokia listen to you. If they are too busy to read the book, they can read a precis of Naked Conversations at http://poetslife.blogspot.com/search/label/Naked%20Conversations
In my view, Robert is a genius, and a productive and prolific one at that. Those in mahagony row at Nokia would be wise to heed your words…and his. Fortunately, he has made his very easy to read and learn and view visually (for the reading challenged) at Scobilizer and PodTech.
Tell them that it is best to have people “flipping the funnel” rather than “flipping the bird” at their products…and them.
Thanks Bruce, genius is a vague word and very subjective. I’m not trying to insult Robert, I think what he did was revolutionary, but I love how humble he is when he admits he enjoys being in the company of people smarter than him. I hear him say that often, and it reminds me so much of a proverb my father always tells me, to compete and more importantly learn from the best.
Genius, like love and beauty, may be subjective…but…I’ve followed his blog enough years to know it when I see it, and Robert Scoble has a gift.