Post-crisis marketing

After 15 years of almost uninterrupted prosperity for both consumer as well as business, despite of the an occasional slowdown, people will adjust to the new reality. S&P 500 fell almost 50%, so did our shares, our trust, inflation was growing more rapidly than our income, the value of our real estate wasn’t a firm asset, and yet companies are trying to persuade these Post Recession Consumers to consume again.

“Understanding the Post Recession Consumers”

The HBR contribute an interesting article “Understanding the Post Recession Consumers”. Compared to previous post-recession attitudes they predict how consumers will react after this crisis. A few trends do strengthen the demand for Vendor Relationship Management or 'new marketing'.
The most dominant trend is set out in “demand for simplicity”, consumer are seeking uncomplicated, user-friendly products & services that simplify their lives. Say goodbye to all cross-selling tactics from a manufacture-point-of-view.

"Agile consumers"
A more advancing trend is “mercurial consumption”, Easy access to information and friction free purchasing is making consumers even more agile. The primary response of marketers will be, working even more aggressive remain doing what they did. This is given due to the fact that marketers still don’t adjust to the new needs of the consumer. Marketers want to capture ‘their’ clients, and put them on a golden chain and believe they are loyal. But now marketers have to deal with ‘agile’ consumers, no way to capture them, and no need to capture them.

 (low quality movie, but great content)
“Loyalty is in the heart, not in a program”
Just adjust to them, create tools & processes, to get them really involved. Give them the sincere feeling that you really care, that they really can influence. And give them reason to sustain this feeling, so act! Then you will build loyalty as loyalty is in the heart & mind and not in a loyalty-card filled with data through a CRM-system.

10 years Cluetrain manifesto

Its 10 years ago that the Cluetrain Manifesto (the end of business as usual) is written. In a set of 95 theses Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger . It is a set of 95 theses which put forward a call to action. Internet will restore the old marketplace on the town square (markets are conversations) and this new open marketplace will remodel the whole society.

“People of earth…..
A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. a power global conversation.”


I overheard an interview with Doc Sears on what actually did change over the last 10 years & what didn’t. Doc, currently working at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, at Harvard University, adding his contribution to VRM. He started to answer the last question: “what didn’t change”. He replied that in fact everything changed, “the frog was boiled, the future is here but its unevenly distributed, but no way turn around. There is an dependency on internet and the power to contribute widely to society is given back to the individual”.

On the first question time was on the side of Doc. We all have witnessed what changed over the last 10 years. Markets are becoming conversations again, instead of demographics, mass markets are done and we are get to deal on a human level again. All niches together will create the mass. The symmetry (producers produce & consumers consume) is gone because now consumers produce as well.


The interview ended why Apple was still so successful despite they doing the opposite as described in Cluetrain. Doc explained that Apple contributed a lot to the start-up of the internet but that now Apple is Steve Jobs. And Steve Jobs as an artist & you don’t tell Picasso how to paint.


So unless you think that you are Picasso (re)read Cluetrain again and see how you can contribute to the conversation; because markets are ……… conversations.

About 'social media'

ok,ok, maybe a part is comparing apples and oranges, but it defenitly gives you an idea that the world is changing rapidly. In case you want to use this video as inspiration for your next presentation: It took Facebook about 4 years aswell to reach the first 50M.  Great inspirational material. Thank you Erik!

a great brand extension

At the border of art (according to Jeff Koons) & commerce

Yes, an out of proportion soccergame with 22 Barbies, which I found walking through Paris! It is created by Chloe Runchon in cooperation with Mattel & Bonzini. In my opinion a great piece of functional art. When you have an extra 10.000 euro to spent, it can be yours; but be quick only 9 pieces are made.

In a perfect world

Over the last months I had the privilege to have time to think things over. The strategic framework of Yunomi, the RM-platform of Unilever was set. The outline of the platform was ready as well & now other people of the Emakina Group were realizing this multi brand, multi country platform. New opportunities were there but I deliberately didn’t go for them, I felt it was time for something different (like every once in a while).

During one of the school holidays my family & me made a trip to Rio de Janeiro as we had never been to South America & one of my former employees (and by now good friend) Bram Stevens would attend to Rio as well on his sailingtrip around the world with his girlfriend Vivian. How much more reasons should one have to visit Rio? As Karin (my best friend and wife) & I thought it would be nice to catch up over a longer period (instead of just one diner) we invited them in our hotel and booked them a room; we had great laughs, good stories and after a long night it was morning again. Time for breakfast.

Breakfast is one of the best things in a hotel, we always can look forward to that. During our previous days in Rio my family had extended breakfast sessions & we had good recognition of the personnel. So this morning Bram and Viv did join us as well. Bram & I were talking business, as usual; on how the market was changing, opportunities that occur, so basically we continued were we ended last evening. According to us the market was shifting towards a more “customer in control” situation than ever before. We wouldn’t find the news, the news would find us based on our preferences, social entity etc. This would extend to products and services. In a perfect world products & services would find us, in a contextual manner, relevant & in time. In a perfect world customers would influence the products & services to make a perfect fit.

When we sat down at our table, the waitress came to Karin with a very nice orange juice. The previous days Karin always had chosen the orange juice out of all very nice fresh juices (from pineapple to watermelon and everything in between). This time the waitress didn’t ask Karin what she wanted but brought here the orange juice proactive. And just today Karin felt like trying the watermelon juice; it wasn't a perfect world yet.

We laughed when Bram said the memorable words: “……..and this is one of the problems with CRM; based on previous data the vendor thinks to know what the customer wants.” And that was the moment I switched in my mind from CRM to VRM; The ability for a vendor to anticipate in the process of the consumer and give them as much control as possible. So I was convinced about my 'new' thing. VRM instead of CRM, only one letter different, yet an whole perfect new world to explore.

Starting to maintain...........

The moment people started to write that ‘social media’ took over the Nr.1 position from ‘porn’ on the net, I realized that my time had come to be actively involved as well; this time not as consultant but as participant. Besides the fact that this statement is a testimony of poor research, it triggered me to immerse in social media, as I have for years wanted to make a pornsite, of course from research perspective, which I have not finally done (yes, all my friends called me ‘chicken’). So now “Social media took over Nr.1 position from sex” I cannot stay behind.


Over the years I advised multinational companies (Unilever, Microsoft, Sony and many others) on how they should go to the Web, I invested in various internet companies and I started 2 internet agencies. I have stakes in companies from New York to Shanghai, won several internet awards and yet over the last 15 years I failed to make a good blog.

There are 2 previous moments in which I have dared attempt. The first was after a bet with Gaby Zwaan, in which he said that I couldn’t maintain a weblog, 2 days after I lost gloriously (1 day later then he predicted). And the second was a blog about ‘gulf-war’ where we were so successful that the CIA did watch with us carefully; when we discovered (by our stats) we remained concentrating on building websites for our clients again.

So now you are witness of my 3th attempt and as we all know: internet is about trying, adjusting & trying again. The endless beta-version.

After my bold decision to make a blog again, I thought back to various sessions I had with clients on how and what to publish; my repeat-question was: "why do you think people want to visit you". Almost no answer was good enough for me, (and often I was right); and now I am here, just writing about the subjects I find interesting: internet, vendor relation management, human interaction & fashion. I agree: fashion is out of line here, but he, I am writing my part; If you disagree, please leave a message; If you like it, please leave a message as well;

This is the new era: just be who you are (the favorite reply of one of my best friends Matthias Scholten is "but I am not like that") & your audience will find you; maybe it’s a niche, maybe the niche is pretty big. And you only find out once you start...........& maintain!