Every business has two visions: A brand vision and a daily vision.

As the foundation of the whole organization, the brand vision rarely changes, drives the overall strategy of the company and informs employees, customers and people what the businesses stands for. Daily visions are decisions that are made in the process of doing business. Circumstances tend to determine daily visions.

Vital and healthy businesses are driven by brand visions. Daily visions are just another expression of their brand vision. Every decision falls into line with the the overall vision.

Any business driven by daily visions, small emergencies and political battles is in deep trouble. Everybody forgot the brand vision, if there ever was one, and the business just tries to stay above water.

Vital businesses are like the biggest passenger ships in the world: Always moving ahead, not to be bothered by little details, minor catastrophes. Unwaivering. Determined.

These enormous ships used to be supported by a few trawlers: The Color TV, The Colorful Print, The Noise Radio.The trawlers deviate from the path once in a while to explore the world outside of the given path.  Few  trawlers turned into an armada of trawlers in the new marketing reality: Thousand trawlers following the path of the leading ship but, at the same time, exploring new frontiers, taking risks, being away from the lead ship for a while to experiment. But never out of sight, always in touch with the passenger ship. They have bizarre names: Crazy Twitter, The Dreaming Pownce, etc. We navigate these little trawlers every day, experimenting, dreaming.

Our experiences and adventures don’t change the current course of the ship. But they inform future decisions, new adventures, new innovations. And make the journey so much more enjoyable. And exciting.

Everybody is talking about listening: Listen to your customers, listen to employees, listen to your intuition. Listening has become the new buzzword in the marketing world. The whole idea of Conversational Marketing/Social Media is based on the concept of listening. And listening can make or break your business. But if you don’t know how to listen, you might do more harm to your business than you ever imagined.

Remember the Simpsons Episode, ‘Oh Brother, Where Art Thou’? Homer meets his half-brother, Herb Powell, head honcho of the Powell Motors car company, who decides that Homer is the perfect match to design a car for the average American. Homer comes up with a concept that he markets as ‘powerful like a gorilla, yet soft and yielding like a Nerf ball’, featuring three horns that play ‘La Cucaracha’ and a sound-proof bubble dome for his kids. Powell Motors goes out of business shortly after.

Yes, Herb Powell, listened. But he didn’t listen actively.

No matter in what business you’re in, customers expect from brands to solve their problems. Allergy medicine solves the annoying hay fever problem. Cottonelle for Kids solves a potty training problem. Mac’s solve the virus problem. (At least, reducing it.) Cottonelle for Kids solved a common parenting problem because they asked the right questions. Asking people ‘What do you want?’ will get you nowhere. Asking people ‘Tell me about yourself and the common issues you’re facing on a daily basis.’ will get your creative juices going.

Suggestions by people should not be treated as requirements for the next phase of your product development. Instead, suggestions need to be regarded as problem reflections that you’re tasked to resolve. Does a parent really want a soundproof bubble for their kids while driving long distances? Or do they want ways to entertain their kids safely while they can focus on the drive and listen to radio at the same time?

Businesses need to structure their listening initiatives to ensure they suspend their own frame of reference and judgement while leaning forward and attentively engaging in a conversation. The advent of UGC, Social Networks and consumer participation clearly show that people are growing out of the passive consumption phase. Brands need to catch up quickly. Or they end up with below monstrosity.

Good leaders and sales people have known this forever: A sense of connection makes a huge difference. Connections make or break your job interview. Connections help organizations in their collaboration and innovation efforts. Connections help people to feel better about themselves and make it through hard times.

Management 101 focuses on the employee-employer relationship alone. Recognition and respect are the keywords for a mutually rewarding relationship. While businesses continue to build relationships with people, they end up being too focused on transactions and re-purchase rate.

Instead, businesses need to focus on valuable and open relationships with people.
Valuable not in the sense of ROI (It’s a by-product, not the ultimate goal), rather as an understanding of the universal nature of people and the appreciation of individual contribution. Just taking the time and effort to connect with people is a valuable asset for businesses.  Kindness, fairness and social intelligence go a long way to achieve valuable connections.

These valuable connections will thrive in an open environment. An honest and safe place where people can share their opinion in order to gain understanding and develop new ideas. Nothing feels better to humans than being respected and recognized.

Using Jim Collins’ terminology:  Good companies value their employees and encourage open dialogue. Great companies extend this valuation and openness to everybody. You need the employee-business foundation before you can extend this model to your marketing.

Remember: Conversational Marketing is not a tactic. It’s a mindset that will change your business in magical ways.

Looks like a heart, doesn’t it? KevinRoberts would love it.

Traditional campaigns felt to people like politics to Iowans: They get bombarded with messages for a specific period of time, just to hear nothing and be completely forgotten once the campaign has ended.

This might have made sense in an analog world but it makes absolutely no sense in a digital world: The widget you created 2 years ago is still alive and well on many desktops. Your videos are scattered all over the digital landscape. Games. Banners. Emails. Everything you create in a digital world lives on. Forever.

The new marketing reality forces brands to rethink their campaign strategy: Media and/or Creative used to be the foundation of each campaign. Not anymore. Platforms are king. Platforms should be at the center of each and every campaign. They can be part of your own platform or dedicated platforms outside of your own brand platform, such as YouTube channels or Facebook groups. These platforms need to allow for adjustments, adaptations and improvements.

Just like the corporate site, brand platforms need constant nurturing and a strong commitment from brands. They are not mini sites that will become irrelevant once the campaign ends. Instead, their goal is to create a welcoming home and engage people 24/7 in a conversation.

Ask yourself: Who would you vote for? The candidate that throws a huge bash every 2 years, not to be seen again for another 730 days? Or would you choose the candidate that converses with you through your favorite channels (Email, Town hall meetings, Phone calls, etc) on an ongoing basis, always accessible, always ready to listen to your concerns? The ongoing dialogue and nuturement is what people are looking for. Or they will move on.