Lazar Dzamic' Blog

Lazar Dzamic

It is difficult to find a marketer these days that doesn't talk about the need to 'engage' with customers, mainly through some sort of 'conversation'.

However, when you look at what they actually mean by it, it turns out that there are two main schools. One is the old brand notion that brands just talk 'to' consumers, in a sort of a glorified advertising monologue. A lot of merketers seem to agree that this approach is nowadays as dead as Latin.

The other school of conversation is the customer service one. Here, the existence of the return path is recognised and encouraged, customers are part of the 'conversation'.

What both schools of thought have in common is the notion that 'conversation' could be controlled. That is is ultimately down to the brand to set and twidle the control knobs and if the customer has an opportunity to play with it a bit to get the illusion of participation, even better. 

The world of digital has introduced two new types of conversations. One is the conversation between consumers 'about' the brand. The other one is the customer conversation 'through' the brand.

An example of the former is an independent forum, or a blog. There, people can discuss pros and cons of various brands without the brand being present. So, no control. Smart brands have learned that two ways to deal with this are to monitor what is happening with their 'reputation' in such places and to be quick to act on it.

The latter type of new conversation is a proper user participation in a brand. Examples of it are user generated content and various brand-generated communities (or blogs). So, a brand is here still the initiator, by providing the 'lawn' for customers to gather on, and maybe some tools, and then allowing people to engage in a conversation 'through' a brand.

Cynics may say that the 'through' conversation is only a more sophisticated way to exercise control and that only the 'about' conversation is the genuine one. Which, basically, excludes brands from claiming any right to engage in a conversation with their customers.

Yet, if you ask customers, their major grief with brands is that they are not listening. Customer service is still one of the main pain points for almost any brand. So, a conversation matters and brands not just have the right to do it, they must do it. The more, the better for them.

Otherwise, the 'about' conversation will come knocking on the door with a huge bill in its hands.