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So, we were talking about cross cultural strategies
from a social commerce point of view, from a marketing point of view.
You know, I've seen something, some videos Starbucks published a while ago
and it was quite interesting, they actually do a lot of research
about how the architectural style is in the country they're going to open a new store.
They actually blend in totally, you know, and they have this neat design department
where they study these things, and they actually open stores
that aren't the same across countries, they're, you know, "personalized".
And they totally blend in with the buildings they have around them, that's -
I think that's pretty cool, do you think that's important from a customer point of view?
To have a big brand that actually comes to your home and dresses the way you dress, in a way?
No, I think it's overstated, I think it is important, but I think it's also overstated.
I think some of the reasons why people like brands that are not home-grown is that they are different,
and so the difference is actually what makes them appealing,
if they try to make Starbucks into Italian coffee it just isn't going to work, because it isn't.
So I think Starbucks is Starbucks, and it should just be Starbucks.
There's also with the web now, my personal view is that, rather than sort of
the HSPC "Think global, act local", I think it's "Think global, act global".
People are the same, there is - what psychologists call the "psychic unity of human kind",
that people are essentially all the same, that we are the same,
we share the same thoughts, the same sentiments, there's difference as diversity
but what the challenge is for brands is to remind what's common,
what binds humans together, what binds consumers together
and work with that, find the points of where you can think global and act global, it's when you can think global and act global
then you got scale like you got never before, and so
I think that yes, it is necessary to look at how things are different,
and in social commerce the way that we advise people to deploy social commerce
is to take a lead approach, where you first will listen to your customers,
find out what they want, then you experiment, see whether what they want - if they really do want it
you adapt based on what works and then finally you develop that
into your long term strategy.
So actually you develop in the market.
I think - yes, there are different ways of doing things in different cultures if you're culturally sensitive,
but the big win comes is when you can identify universals, human universals,
and build off human universals.
I think that's a topic that has been developed especially by
people who are in neuromarketing, which base their research exactly on that,| Yeah.
the way we are all equal and the way every human being functions,
because our brains are all the same, as you said earlier.
So I think that's kind of an interesting thing, you know,
to combine neuromarketing with the awareness that there are cultural differences,
and combine these two aspects in some way that makes things work
in different countries, in different cultures.
So, I was going to ask you if you believe that, regarding social commerce,
there is one universal recipe that companies might adopt,
and that's going to work for everything, everywhere,
but I think that's not the case.
I don't know, because you don't know - it's the black swan argument
you don't know if black swans exist, did you see them?
I think there's a - what we know about how social commerce is working is that
by treating your fans best, by giving them fan first exclusives,
so making your products, such as Chanel does when it launches new products, it allows its fans
to get its plans on the products before anybody else.
That's universal, because people like to be treated well,
actually being treated preferencially, given VIP treatment.
So being nice to your best customers, I think that is universal,
to the extent that social commerce allows you to be good to your best customers,
to create smiles, and I think smiles are a universal human trait.
Business with social commerce is not about trying to generate sales,
it should be about generating smiles, and smiles amongst your best customers,
and by getting your product into the hands of your best customers,
your fans, your Facebook fans first, or by giving them fan first exclusives,
or fan only exclusives, such as Warner Brothers does for example,
it creates special DVDs, Blu Ray DVDs just for fans -
and it makes it available on the Facebook fan page.
I think that's a universal trait, I think that - for me - that would be the recipe for success,
how can we create smiles?
And we know how to create smiles by giving people an exclusive experience that exceeds their expectations,
and we know the people who to do that to, best of all, is not people who switch or promotional junkies who go from brand to brand,
but your brand fans, and making your brand fans smile through social commerce
is a universal strategy that could work.
So transforming your fans into apostles, actually,
people who bring your brand to their friends
and they talk about you in a good way.
Yeah, if you like religious language of apostles and evangelists
yeah, it's exactly that. No, no, sure, sure, but I mean yeah: you're right
It's turning fans into advocates, into loyal advocates.
Anybody can press a Like button, but a Like button is worthless to a brand or retailer.
What is worthwhile are two things:
one is their money, when they buy - the second is their advocacy
that brings in new customers
so their referral value and their spending value.
And to the degree that social commerce can increase the lifetime,
customer lifetime value,
the amount you can spend on a brand, it can do that, it's a good thing
and to the degree that it can increase the referral value,
the amount you advocate it to your friends to bring in new customers,
then it's a good thing.
So, what do you believe about crowdsourcing?
The best, the biggest, the best television franchise we've ever known,
the whole Idol franchise is based on crowdsourcing.
What is crowdsourcing? It's basically taking a job that was done internally
and outsourcing it to an undefined group of people, usually using the Internet.
So allowing people for example Threadless, who are a T-shirt company,
they sell T-shirts online, they have contests online, the people
suggest their own designs, people vote on the designs,
the winning design goes into production, people can buy it.
It's the only apparel retailer online that sistematically sells
out of everything it's done.
Pop idol, the whole Idol franchise does the same thing:
people participate, it's participatory digital culture
where people actually participate in voting for who's going to win.
So what do I think about it, I think it's an incredibly powerful tool,
the challenge is managing it over long term.
We've seen what's happened with the so called "Arab spring",
there were uprisings where people have - the crowd has used the Internet
to come together, to overthrow regimes,
but it's looking slightly less effective today at actually working out how a new democracy is going to function.
Similar with Obama.
They coalesce, the crowd came together, you had crowd power,
that sources this massive movement that brought Obama on a wave of - into power,
but then how did they use crowdsourcing? Did it help Obama be a better president,
and has he become a better president because of it?
So I think it's incredibly powerful, but it's really difficult to tame,
and really difficult to use.
There is a very small number of companies that have managed to harness
the potential of crowdsourcing in the way that the Pop Idol franchise has done for television.