Hugh nails it... and with a cool cartoon to boot. (© Hugh Macleod). He divides your marketing into two parts, using an inner and outer circle.
1. The "internal conversation" your company is having with itself (circle A).
2. The "external conversation" your company should be having with, er, customers (circle B).
The membrane between these two areas should be porous enough that they are "aligned." I.e. you're listening to your customers and talking back to them about stuff they care about. In other words, you (your company) and your customers are talking about the same thing.
And... corporate blogs can enable this conversation. Tony Dowler makes a good point, however. Blogs are not the only conversations you should be having with customers. You can still use "press releases, white papers, training courses and presentations."
Did you know you can order Hugh's sketches for the front of your business card? I'm a huge fan of his blog cards as he calls them.
Previous Comments
Yoram said on May 13, 2005 at 04:52 PM
This is one of the most confusing graphical arguments I’ve seen in a long time. I understand the theory, but it’s just really confusing.
Tony Dowler said on May 15, 2005 at 04:28 PM
The thing that really cheers me about the way Hugh describes the conversation is that when he talks about “aligning”, he’s talking about a process of give and take with respect on both sides.
Too many times I’ve been asked to help align customer thinking where
“align” means something more like “herd” - no respect for the customer at all.
?ic @TomorrowToday.biz said on May 15, 2005 at 05:33 PM
Leaders, blogging and where to start
You’re a leader? Check.
You want to connect internally and externally with your network? Check.
You don’t feel the traditional channels are working as well as they could? Check.
You’ve heard of blogging, but it sounds scary/tough/like some school k…
——-
Debbie Weil said on May 15, 2005 at 07:00 PM
Yoram,
What’s confusing is the way he’s depicted the “membrane.” Think of “X” as the membrane between the company and the wider audience of customers, prospects, etc. Don’t worry about the “Y.”
Yoram said on May 16, 2005 at 02:17 PM
What’s confusing (in a graphical sense) is that his labels of things include arrows, that seem to be piercing through lines, etc.
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