Buying a Kindle DX ten months ago and now an iPad (delivered in the first batch on April 3rd), it really struck me recently how messy (or exciting!) everything is getting.  Mash-ups of business models are happening everywhere, and at an accelerating pace.  Here are a dozen big trends that I'm watching for this year, some relevant to Bazaarvoice and others not so much:

1. After Amazon.com launched the Kindle, it quickly became their number-one seller.  The free wifi to download a book from anywhere was just too compelling to pass up, along with the very easy to read screen.  Amazon projected that it would increase compulsive buying of books to the point where the wifi was subsidized by Amazon.com.  And it is working (for now).
2. And while we're talking about compulsive buying, consider Amazon.com Prime for "consolidated" buying vs. other retailers.  Other retailers have tried to emulate Prime and failed to do so.  It is difficult to do – you have to be very quick to ship (i.e., many distribution centers), with the availability (i.e., tons of inventory), to really trigger the compulsive buying effect.  There are profound implications on the long-tail as Amazon.com expands.  And, in their most recent quarterly report, Amazon's same-store U.S. sales were up a staggering 75%.  It seems that both the Kindle and Prime are triggering the compulsive buying effect, coupled with Amazon's long-tail inventory.  Many retailers same-store sales are flat to down as we come out of the Great Recession, and Amazon.com's stellar performance has to be noticed by them.  Our Chief Marketing Officer, Sam, blogged about this in November of 2008 and it is even more true today.
3. Enter the iPad.  The week Apple launched the iPad it sold 450,000 units with 600,000 books (via iBooks) shortly after.  Now that I have had the iPad for awhile, I don't just think of it as competitive with the Kindle or other eReaders or "tablets" – it is also competitive with netbooks (another mash-up), as Steve Jobs eagerly stressed.  Just project out a few years when the iPad has 256gb capacity, instead of the 64gb my model has today, combined with the new iPhone 4.0 OS (coming out at the end of this year) that enables multitasking, a micro-USB port or two, and wireless streaming everywhere allowing for seamless connectivity no matter where you are.  The iPad already has a keyboard docking station, which I also bought, and, of course, bluetooth for connecting to wireless keyboards.  And new TVs and DVDs are coming out with built-in home network and wireless capabilities, allowing you to stream TV to laptops, netbooks, desktops, iPads, iPhones, or whatever you choose to use around the house (or while you are on the road if you have a Slingbox or something similar).  The bottom line is that the genius author, Kevin Kelly, got it right in this Wired magazine article (comparing tablets to a portable window into the world).
4. Will the iPad hurt Kindle sales?  Many Wall Street analysts and journalists think so.  My personal take?  Well, I was skeptical about whether or not I would enjoy reading books on it as much as I do the Kindle.  Initially we were just buying the iPad as a family device for watching movies, playing games, and keeping up with blogs, Facebook, and Twitter.  But now with the Kindle app loaded on my iPad, adjusted to a sepia "paper" color and 60% brightness, I can read for hours just fine.  But to really see how the iPad transforms books, just check out the book it comes pre-loaded with (a Winnie the Pooh children's book, which is, of course, in beautiful color).  No color on the Kindle.  Every try to read a no-color book to a child?  And then check out the app, The Elements, which has gorgeous color, 3D illustrations, and full-on video.  Or look at what Wired magazine may be planning to do with tablets.  I was watching Alice in Wonderland with our daughter recently, and Alice said (shortly before falling down the rabbit hole), "What is the use of a book, without pictures or conversations?".  Just look back in history at the adoption rates once color television came out vs. black-and-white television.  It is just a matter of time before our children are carrying interactive tablets in their backpacks instead of heavy textbooks.  Yes, I think it is going to impact Kindle sales.
5. Ok, let's talk about mobile.  Google's Android (open platform) continues to gain traction vs. Apple's iPhone OS (closed platform).  It wasn't surprising to me when Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's Board of Directors.  I moderated a panel of amazing venture capitalists at NRF and Shop.org's Innovate conference back in March, where my good friend Peter Fenton of Benchmark Capital predicted that Android would overtake the iPhone OS over time.  Of course, Android will power tablets too.  We've seen this movie before as Apple stayed closed vs. the PC world being open.  Will the movie be the same this time?
6. Mobile is now at a tipping point, with GPS built in, good camera phones, and great web browsers (e.g., Safari and Chrome).  We'll see a lot of mash-ups in this area as mobile is increasingly used by consumers while in stores, which will one-up the mobile use we've seen in social commerce so far.  Interestingly, the VCs on my NRF and Shop.org panel in March thought it would take several years, so our prediction about "the year of mobile" in 2009 may have been a bit early, although I would argue that the iPhone's rapid adoption that year did change the game.  And it certainly hasn't slowed down Mary Meeker at Morgan Stanley to produce the most comprehensive report (at 424 pages) I've ever seen on the state of the mobile industry, nor did it prevent NRF and Shop.org from having a Mobile Boot Camp at the March conference.
7. How about blogging?  My guess is that blog-post length has decreased (this post aside!) as Facebook has increased to a longer status format and people have become more and more used to Twitter's 140-character length updates.  Perhaps blog views have also decreased.  This leads to more "lightweight", or surface-level, conversations than the deeper-thinking conversations on blogs.  But we'll survive just fine.  I simply don't buy Nick Carr's arguments but I'll debate that later if you wish.
8. Although this would be the obvious place to discuss this trend, I'll purposely stay away from Facebook Like vs. Google Buzz vs. Google AdSense as my co-founder and our Chief Innovation Officer, Brant, is addressing that in a future post.  But needless to say, social is permeating the Web and that trend is accelerating, so we will continue to innovate quickly in this area.
9. Let's talk about transparency.  At the Liberty Interactive NetLeaders Forum in 2008, I remember Rich Barton, founder of Expedia and Zillow, presenting, "everything that can be reviewed will be reviewed [on the Web]".  He showed us examples of CEOs being reviewed on Glassdoor.com.  My opinion?  This will lead to a company culture revolution, which is part of the reason I feel so compelled to write my forthcoming book, How to Make Your Company Suck Less.  And Chris Fralic of First Round Capital as well as Kamal Kirpalani of Bazaarvoice recently asked me to review them on Unvarnished.  I wrote about transparency awhile back, based on a leadership talk I gave at The Wharton School.  In short, I think this is a very profound trend that will not only cause a renaissance in commerce but also in politics, government, and all types of human activities and relationships.
10. At Bazaarvoice, we're leading a revolution of marketing and merchandising with social commerce and user-generated content – or (my preference) digital word of mouth.  Digital word of mouth is quickly becoming the central point of insight for marketers and merchants.  We are writing the marketing and merchandising textbook of the future in our work with our clients (read my previous thoughts on this, from when we reached out 100-billion-impression milestone in February).  Digital word of mouth is getting mashed-up versus the aging focus group, NetPromoter, customer survey, and other methods that get "close" but aren't nearly as pure as how customers speak to each other with no bias vs. how they communicate while in the context of talking to the company.  Things for you to consider here: a) the market has always been based on conversations (read this chapter that was the namesake of our company), b) reviews are the new advertising as we are already beginning to commonly see, c) consumers write reviews to help each other (i.e., altruism, or with no bias), and d) this trend is why Google and Nielsen partnered with us.
11. Channel marketing is becoming more wired.  We see a major trend in this area with the adoption of our BrandVoice and BrandAnswers solutions.  We are at the beginning of this shift, and it is logical to think that, just as offline to advertising shift has fueled online advertising, we will see a similar accelerating trend as suppliers of retailers become more savvy at online channel marketing in a world where 80% of consumers read reviews while they are shopping (Nielsen's most recent stat).  And, of course, mobile is a major accelerant of this trend.
12. Finally, the digital executive will continue to rise in prominence as companies work hard to make sense of the rapid shift to a more digital, hyper-connected world.  For some early indicators of this, look at Raul Vazquez's promotion from CEO of Walmart.com to EVP and President of Walmart West.  Or Toby Lenk's, the founder of the original eToys, rise to President of Direct at Gap.  (I should mention that both are among the best speakers we have ever had at Shop.org events, where I proudly serve on the Board of Directors.)  These are very exciting times for those who really "get it" in digital.

For the long-term potential of the Web, I recommend you check out Kevin Kelly's speech at TED in Dec 2007 or his similarly brilliant article in Wired magazine.  And if you have time to get really far out in thinking about technology's impact on the world, just read chapter 1 (trust me, it's enough) of Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (thanks to my good friend, Ethan Holland at American Eagle, for suggesting it to me).

Sameer Samat, Director of Product Management, Google

At our annual Social Commerce Summit in Austin today, we announced a partnership with Google to introduce an industry-first program that lets brands easily share product review content from their Bazaarvoice-enabled websites with Google properties: SyndicateVoice for Search. Sameer Samat, director of product management for Google Product Search, shared the benefits of the program with a sold-out Summit audience during his presentation, “Organizing the World’s Information for Shoppers.”

This partnership is an incredibly important milestone for Bazaarvoice and for the evolution of social commerce. Why?

We know that shoppers trust customer word of mouth, such as online product reviews, more than any other type of marketing (1). At the same time, 61% of all shoppers use search engines (2), and more people use Google Product Search than any shopping portal (3). Furthermore, user-generated content is becoming increasingly dominant in search results, with over 25% of results for searches of the world’s top 20 brands linking to UGC (4).

In partnership with Google, Bazaarvoice customers can now use SyndicateVoice for Search to combine their most trusted and valuable content – authentic reviews written by their customers – with the most popular search engine in the world to attract the most qualified shoppers to their site.

While this is a big win for brands, who face increasing competition for consumer attention and shopper loyalty each day, the real win is for consumers, who can now quickly find the information they need to make the right purchase decisions for their needs. We’re “democratizing commerce” by enabling consumers’ authentic feedback to help shoppers find exactly what they need, shifting more control of the shopping experience to the most important person in the process — the shopper.

For more information, check out Google’s blog post on the partnership, see their Google Product Reviews Program site, or read our official announcement.

(1) Edelman Trust Barometer, 2006-2009
(2) Compete Online Shopper Intelligence study, February 22, 2010
(3) Comparison Shopping Rankings from CPC Strategy, LLC, April 14, 2010
(4) Socialnomics 2009

Reviews now have an even bigger impact on search results.

On Tuesday, May 12, Google introduced Rich Snippets, a new feature that allows Google to display product rating, review count, and actual review text direct in Google search results.

We already know reviews have a positive impact on search, and this further underscores the need for reviews on any and all websites that want to attract people researching or buying products or services. Organizations without reviews will be left even further behind in the search game.

And it’s great news for Bazaarvoice clients – this free feature will automatically be turned on for all 525+ brand sites Bazaarvoice powers, driving traffic to more than 2 million pages.

We already know that reviews on sites enhance the customer experience and drive sales. Now, Rich Snippets amps up the impact reviews will have on natural search results. Searchers – especially those who are ready to buy – won’t be able to ignore these review snapshots.

Google’s own experiments have shown that users find the new data valuable — if they see useful and relevant information from the page, they are more likely to click through. And we already know customers are looking specifically for product reviews – December 2008 Nielson research found that 81% of shoppers seek reviews.

Maximizing results with Rich Snippets

Review volume matters. Google’s Rich Snippets will show a summary of review information, and pages with more reviews will appear more favorable. In short, it’s important that all products are reviewed – and reviewed a lot.  Bazaarvoice Community Managers, who act as an extension of their clients’ marketing teams, constantly gather and share best practices for driving new volume and engagement, so our clients’ sites rank well.

Syndicate manufacturer reviews to retailers to boost traffic. Retailers need more reviews, and today manufacturers can help build this volume through content syndication. BrandVoice – Bazaarvoice’s product that enables manufacturers to capture reviews on their own sites, then syndicate them to retailer sites – allows the manufacturer to directly, positively impact search results for its key retailers.

Grab the long tail of search. Searchers are getting more specific: according to Avinash Kaushik, Google’s Analytics Evangelist, the average search string has increased 25% since 2008. And the more specific the search, the closer the searcher is to buying. For example, a search for “Nissan Sedan,” may be a search for generic information; however, a search for “2009 Blue Nissan Sentra SE Austin,” is an indication that the searcher knows what he wants and is looking to buy.

More and more, user-generated content drives the way shoppers search, and Rich Snippets is one more way Bazaarvoice clients can benefit from reviews on their site. Here is an example of how content powered by Rich Snippets could be displayed.

And on page 240 he dedicates four pages to “Using Reviews”.  In that section, Bryan highlights the following useful questions to ask about reviews on your site:

1. Do you offer credible, quality reviews?
2. Are they fresh? Specific?
3. Are there sufficient numbers of reviews?
4. How do the negative reviews compare to the positive reviews?
5. Are you encouraging reviews that transcend the “nice,” “worked fin,” and “great product” responses that really don’t contribute to elaborating on your product descriptions?
6. Do you offer multiple or appropriate ways for customers to provide review information?
7. Do you screen your reviews or have a procedure for removing blatantly inappropriate reviews?
8. Do you manipulate your reviews to skew feedback in a way that could backfire on you?
9. Do you make the effort to communicate intelligent reviews to product manufacturers so they might work to improve their product?

If you're interested in how Bazaarvoice answers some of these questions with our solution, check out our Ratings and Reviews page and Service page.

As I promised, Part 2 is more focused on the forces shaping global commerce that we directly see in our business, working with our clients and partners.

5.    Digitally archived word-of-mouth: Blogs are here to stay (see BusinessWeek for a recap).  Word-of-mouth online is not a phase.  It’s a permanent shift.  Word-of-mouth has always been with us (that’s why I named our company Bazaarvoice).  More than 70 of the top 100 retailers in the U.S. have, or are launching, customer reviews today.  When Brant and I launched Bazaarvoice three years ago, only five retailers in the U.S. offered customer reviews, including Amazon.com.  Over the past three years, we have served 10 billion reviews to shoppers (see our recent celebration of this and real-time counter) and are on a current run-rate to serve another 20 billion over just the next year of our business.  Customer reviews are word-of-mouth.  People speak the same way about products online as they do offline.  We are literally seeing word-of-mouth for the first time in human history.

        Luxury retailers are still vigorously debating this – not wanting to give up control and open up their brand.  Like I do almost every week (it seems), I spent time on Wednesday in NYC debating this with the head of online marketing and merchandising of a luxury apparel retailer.  Meanwhile, Best Buy and Wal-Mart have been launching incredible multichannel campaigns (see them here and here), leveraging the power of customer reviews to drive sales online and offline.  Wal-Mart and QVC have all of their online merchandisers plugged into our reports.  They are having intense conversations with their suppliers to reduce returns, increase customer satisfaction, and ultimately evolve their offerings.  The end-game?  Better products and services for all of us.  I knew we were on to something big when we started Bazaarvoice.  But I had no idea it would affect this much change, this quickly.  The fact that Wal-Mart launched customer-review-focused, in-store nationwide campaigns only six months after they launched with us online has staggering implications for the retail industry.

        And it’s not just limited to retail.  Any market where word-of-mouth plays a significant role in driving the transaction are good markets for the type of transformation we offer.  We are, or soon will be (due to signed agreements), powering customer reviews for some of the largest manufacturers of consumer products, banks, credit unions, insurance companies, portals, travel sites, and healthcare companies.  We are doing this globally, in 20 international languages.  We have four offices now – Austin, London, Paris, and now Singapore.  This is a global movement.  As an entrepreneur, it is impossible for me to not be passionate about helping clients lead this transformation.  Word-of-mouth online is an incredibly disruptive force, and I mean this in a positive way if harnessed correctly.  Why did I start this company after seven years at Coremetrics?  Because I knew it worked – but I didn't realize that it worked as well as I know it does now. 

        Seven years ago, Michael Porter wrote about the Web’s incredibly disruptive impact on the five forces (standard material for any MBA program).  When I read this article in 2001, I thought, "Porter is late to the game".  Now when I re-read it in the context of the social media movement, I think he was incredibly visionary.  Smart companies are reaping the rewards of that disruption, while others have been too slow to change and are going out of business.

6.    Six degrees of separation (tip of the hat to my brilliant and passionate friend, Mitch): Millennials are growing up connected to social networks, namely Facebook.  Their network of friends is intact for as long as they’ve been in “the system”.  They will be able to track their friends’ progress throughout life’s many stages – forever.  I’ve been a programmer since I was 7 and have communicated online (via BBSs) since I was 8 (launching my own when I was 10).  So I can relate.  But I can’t imagine all of the implications of all of this connectedness.  What does it mean, as a human being, to be able to so easily track your friends evolution in life as they go from preteen to teen to college to career to marriage to parenthood and, ultimately, to death?  A typical Millennial is connected to hundreds of friends on Facebook.  By comparison, I personally keep in close touch with only one of my early childhood friends (a few more are reconnecting via Facebook, but I have missed decades of their life and its hard to relate to them anymore). 

        How will these Millennials be shaped by this as shoppers?  As people?  Obviously, social media everywhere will be an expectation.  Ubiquitous Web access, via mobile, is rapidly coming.  How will companies adapt?  Typical Facebook banner-ads are getting .005% click-thru rates, as reported on the Web 2.0 panel at Shop.org last week by those helping their clients experiment with them.  That’s pathetic performance!  Millennials don’t want the disruption by brands when they are in the modality of friending – unless they actually help them enhance that experience.  Being on Google, Yahoo!, or Live.com and clicking on a paid-search link when they are in a shopping modality is a whole different story, and obviously that works – ridiculously well.  Facebook applications, however, are performing when they give unique value to these consumers.  On that same Shop.org panel, the Victoria’s Secret PINK Facebook application was pointed as one good example. 

        What are the long-term implications of this connectedness?  I don’t know, but we’re determined to help figure this out by working with all of our clients.

Thank you again for an amazing three years in business.  It is a true honor to work with such smart clients, and I look forward to seeing you soon at our Social Commerce Summit. 

But you probably haven't heard about this: today, Google's valuation surpassed Wal-Mart's for the first time.  Wal-Mart is the largest company in the world as the Fortune and Global 1.  As of today's market close, Google is worth $177.6 billion while Wal-Mart is worth $175.58 billion.  Wal-Mart has a P/E ratio of 14.46 while Google's is 46.24.  The high relative P/E is a reflection of Google's insane growth (and projected growth) and margins since their founding (that may seem like a high P/E overall but note that Yahoo!'s is 51.75 and the only explanation is that the market must value a more diversified and theoretically more stable revenue stream).

And talk about a young company.  While Facebook was founded in 2004, Google was founded in 1998 (that's around $20 billion of value created every year since their founding).  It's amazing to think that only around 10% of all advertising is spent online today.  The revenue shift from offline to online advertising is mindboggling.  We are witnessing the creation of the most valuable company in the history of the world.

The only explanation for Facebook's incredible valuation is the average (very long) dwell time of the user (especially Millennials, as Kelly Mooney would call them) and the theoretical future value of their advertising stream.  I presented at a local high school recently and learned, not surprisingly, that the students were communicating (i.e., living) in Facebook more than IM or email.  But it's not just for kids.  Our CMO, Sam Decker, wrote about Facebook taking off for business users in his blog.  I have certainly seen that.  The CEO of Ice.com just sent me an invite to connect on Facebook today (I had the pleasure of presenting with his brother, Pinny, at last week's awesome Shop.org Annual Summit in Vegas).  I am getting 5-6 invites per week now and am spending more time on Facebook than LinkedIn now.  And everyone, including Bazaarvoice, is rushing in to integrate with Facebook. 

I wrote about how the Web browser and social networks are becoming increasingly more integrated in April.  Hang on to your hat – if Microsoft invests in Facebook, it is going to get really interesting really quickly.  How consumer-generated content becomes more integrated in social networks is going to create some very interesting (viral) opportunities.  We're gearing up for that here.

By the way, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Google never advertised.  Neither did Facebook.  Both brands were built entirely by word of mouth.  And both brands are very young but obviously very established.  That's just how valuable of a service they created.  They're worth talking about… really worth talking about.  Now, Facebook me.

Bazaarvoice clients learn a lot from Jeff, and through the SyndicateVoice and SearchVoice program they have also gained a lot of revenue impact. Jeff will share key findings across many large multi-channel retailers as well as strategies (such as segmented content and avoiding duplicate content) that is critical to making user generated content effective for boosting natural search traffic. There will be time for questions at the end as well. Click on the link below to register — there is a limited number of 'seats'!

Boosting Natural Search Traffic Through Consumer-Generated Content

Join us for a live webinar on August 29th to hear Jeff Watts, a veteran search engine optimization strategist and product manager for Bazaarvoice, explain how you can employ consumer-generated content to help drive down your acquisition costs and improve the efficacy of your search engine marketing.

This webinar will cover:
* Why user-generated content indexes well with search engines
* Performance of review content in the long tail of search
* The Bazaarvoice approach to search engine optimization
* Sample case studies and best practices

Date:       
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
       
Time:       
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM CDT

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.3.9 (Panther®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/513013753

We had the pleasure of hosting Andy Sernovitz, the founder of WOMMA and a Bazaarvoice Advisory Board member, at our office a few weeks ago. Andy gave a lunch presentation to our team, and something he said really struck me: “Advertising is the tax companies pay to sell poor products”. Google, Starbucks, and many other brave companies decided to buck the formula and invest in the product instead of “brand imagery” (i.e., advertising). Andy has countless examples, and wrote a fantastic book on the subject that has been endorsed by the likes of Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki, two of my favorite authors.

And then I met with a large apparel company a week later that is afraid of reviews. Prospect: “We tell the consumer how they should think about our products”. Prospect: “A hip woman in NYC may be turned off by a woman in Topeka, Kansas writing a review on a trendy fashion”. I’ll save you my lengthy and impassioned response.

As I write this, I'm on my flight back from London after spending a week in our UK office, speaking at the e-consultancy conference and meeting with prospects, partners, and press. And tomorrow is the 4th, so I'm feeling kind of revolutionary. So, here is my take on how advertising will evolve.

First, I would modify Andy’s quote: “At its best, advertising is a reinforcement for positive word of mouth, and it reminds a customer to buy”. Think about it for a moment. Do you remember most ads? Of course not. We all selectively filter information based on relevance to us at that point in time. But if you are shopping for a new phone-PDA, like I was recently when my phone broke, you are likely to call an expert. In this case, I called Michael Osborne, who is a gadget nut (check out his Bazaarblog post on the iPhone). He recommended the BlackBerry 8800 for a number of reasons: 1. call quality, 2. ease of use, 3. sexiness, and 4. built-in GPS. The last one really mattered to me, as I have always wanted a GPS when walking around a large city like NYC or driving a rental car. I bought one four hours later, after doing a bit more research (like talking to the sales rep in the store). Michael’s recommendation meant more to me than any amount of advertising ever could. And I can already say that the BlackBerry 8800 is the best phone-PDA I have ever owned. Built-in GPS navigation is a break-through in mobile phone technology (it will leave you thinking “how did I live without this?”, just like when you bought your first mobile phone).

Now let’s introduce advertising into this. Let’s say I wanted a new digital camera, and I had a longer lead time to look for one. I speak with the experts in my network. I read reviews online (both expert and consumer). I receive a range of different opinions. For my price range, I center on a Canon ABC or Nikon XYZ for different reasons. The Nikon has a slightly faster shutter speed and a better construction, but the Canon has slightly better software and is easier to use with more accessories. If I have multiple weeks to make this decision, advertising can now play an important role:

1. It can introduce me to retailers that carry these products (although I am already aware of the better ones since I read reviews online).

2. It can reinforce the positives that I already learned about via word of mouth and remind me to buy.

The best advertising is that which does a great job of highlighting real benefits in a concise and entertaining way. How many advertisements have you watched for cars driving fast on twisty roads? [Yawn!] We all know that very few cars are actually known for that. A Porsche, yes. That is real. But the majority of this advertising is almost completely useless. At its worst, it’s fraudulent. In this age of overabundance of media, it insults our intelligence and makes us want to tune out. We don’t like being lied to and the truth is more accessible than it has ever been before, due to the Internet. The best advertising is that which listens to real word of mouth and highlights real benefits.

This is easier than it sounds, again due to the Internet. Here’s the three-step formula:

1. Find a product that has a high velocity of positive word of mouth. No need to advertise a product that no one cares about. You are fooling yourself if you think you can get consumers to start talking about a boring, or poor, product. Better to put that money into better product development or invest it in your stores than waste it. But a product that a lot of people are talking about – that’s the sweet-spot. Wii ads everywhere – and highlight the revolutionary controller, please.

2. Research what people are saying in reviews, blogs, forums, and social networks. Word of mouth is now digitally archived, globally accessible, and available at the speed of your fingertips. Learn what the real benefits are. There are probably only three key benefits that everyone is passionately agreeing on. Don’t waste your money on a focus group; that isn’t a real conversation. That’s old school – it honors the days when marketers had to guess at word of mouth (i.e., when it wasn’t digitally captured for analysis). Today, nothing is more real than tapping into a C2C conversation – where there is no reason to share anything but the truth. No agenda – just social connection, good karma, and a little ego. If you haven’t searched your brand on Technorati, try it now – it’s a start and it's free.

3. Highlight these three authentic benefits in your advertising in an entertaining and concise way. Have you seen the recent Apple vs. PC ads (see above)? Pure brilliance. Entertaining, real, clever, memorable, and emotional.

Now, assuming you do a good job of placing the ad where potential buyers will see it, you will remind them of the positives they have already learned about and therefore increase the chance that they will buy it from you. That ad will drive the behavior that you are ultimately accountable for (i.e., sales).

Although this form of advertising is currently rare (i.e., most ads rarely highlight authentic benefits), I am convinced that this is how advertising will evolve. The Internet has made it mandatory. Everyone online now has near-immediate access to the real positives and negatives. It is becoming increasingly difficult to advertise to consumers in an inauthentic way because they are now hyper-educated. And as advertising evolves, advertisers and merchandisers will work more closely together (they have to) and we will tune back in.

Products will get better, too, but that is a subject for another time.