Social Media Checklists: Cleared for Takeoff?

I did Altucher this weekend, which is why I'm late in posting now. Between my social media work at Autodesk and the time I spend reading other people's stuff, it's been a challenge finding time. Especially when I find content I really like. This weekend I spent hours reading every single post this guy ever wrote since 2010.

James is a pretty famous guy who made and lost millions (not necessarily in that order), lives in my home town of New York City, and became an accomplished author essentially by giving his material away for free.

I won't go into the details of what this guy writes about. Suffice to say he hasn't had a bad post since 2010, and that's a pretty good batting average. Go read his material - I hope you get as hooked on it as I did.

What the heck does this have to do with social media? Stick with me, I'm getting there. You see, buried in the vast flow of Altucherism is a nugget called Atul Gawande. That's Dr. Gawande to us mere mortals.

To find him, you have to read Altucher's post about living forever. Go ahead. Do it. It's in item #10 about avoiding hospitals. See it? Great. Now, if you're involved in any kind of training or coaching for social media in a very large organisation, click on the link, and either order or Kindle the guy's book The Checklist Manifesto.

At Autodesk, my team is responsible for on-boarding customer service staff onto social media channels. We started with forums and Twitter. We're headed out to new frontiers shortly. Now, I'm not a certified trainer - I only play one on TV - but through experience and trial and error, I've been learning a lot about training people to be successful on social media channels in the past six months. And you know what? It's quite a challenge. And I'm talking about working with really good people here - experienced, seasoned folks used to real phone/email combat in the customer service trenches.

In the process, we did classroom training, videos, screencasts, vendor tools training, real-time piloting (as I call it), simulated exercises, learn-by-example, ad-hoc mentoring, you name it. We bought books, we wrote guidelines, what-if scenarios, and a myriad of shared documents on what to say, where to say it, how to say it, why to say it, etc. In a real-time 24/5 context, this stuff can get pretty hairy. Can you spell "information overload"? Additionally, we work social on a global level with international teams. So you have cultural differences as well. And then of course, different people have different levels of familiarity with different channels, various approaches to learning and retaining, and so on.

Yet of all the techniques and methods employed, at least so far, I noticed early on that "pilot checklists" were the most efficient. So now you see why, upon reading about Dr. Gawande's work, something clicked for me. More importantly, the Manifesto identifies three types of problems: simple, complicated, and complex. Social media oscillates between the latter two. So can checklists help tackle these? I think so.

It turns out that a lot of social media interaction (monitoring and engagement) can be decomposed into discrete and well-defined sets of simple sequential steps. I know this because I'm working on social media capacity modeling these days. And to do this right, you need to know how much time people spend doing social. Turns out with a little experience you can clock both monitoring, triaging, and engagement activities to the second. If you have the frequency of events, and the time per event, and you know how many hours a day an agent can spend on social, then you have a pretty decent capacity model.

I know most of us "experts" - much like the doctors in the Manifesto - like to think of social media as a "gift" only a chosen few can master, but that's just nonsense. Truth be told, social media is not "voodoo" anymore. This is particularly true for sheer engagement. And most people can learn this stuff effectively. They need to be inherently "social" - which is a human trait (nature) - and they need the right checklist, which is a machine/process trait (nurture). Then they need to read the checklist of course.

The checklist for Twitter pretty much goes like this (it's roughly the same in any other channel):

1. Find a post (we have a triaging decision map)
2. Assign it to yourself (we use Radian6's Engagement Console)
3. Classify it (discrete values)
4. Select engagement level (a workflow state machine)
5. Annotate it (metadata)
6. Tag it
7. Respond
8. Sign response (like ^XYZ)
9. If needed, go into DM mode (exchanging private user information)
10. Create corresponding case in CRM if and as needed

I'm simplifying somewhat here, but you get the point. You can do the same thing for engagement on forums, Facebook, G+, etc. and for various channel modalities for publishing and promotion. Consistently, the checklist system has been more efficient and easier to "regulate" than any other type of operational content. Why is that?

People need clear, concise, sequential action items when in the heat of battle, not large how-to theoretical documents. Checklists are like a safety blanket. No one can get slapped for a problem if the checklist procedures were properly followed (but the checklist author can).

Long documents are open to interpretation. Checklists are not. Checklists are easily accessible - our guys slap physical printouts on their cube walls - whereas shared documents on SharePoint are not. Checklists are easy to maintain and adjust based on "bio-feedback" (live from-the-field experience). Big documents are harder to pull up, shuffle around and maintain.

So there you have it - for all the time and effort put into large and long social media training processes, it turns out a few simple checklists can usually do the trick faster and more efficiently. Who would have thought? Except Dr. Gawande clearly.

Checklists. If they're good enough for 747 pilots, astronauts, and brain surgeons, they're good enough for social media customer service folks as well - and probably essential. I bet you the guys at the Dell or Gatorade Mission Control Center use them all the time!

Social Media and the Power of Crazy

People underestimate the power of crazy. or maybe they're just scared of it, I don't know. But crazy drives innovation and progress. Traditional, safe, status-quo, and "reasonable" hardly ever does.

Think about the list of crazy innovators who made a considerable impact on the world of business including Einstein, Steve Jobs, Jean-Claude Biver, Tony Hsieh, Andy wharhol, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Walton, Larry Page, Howard Stern, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, Richard Branson, Ray Kroc.

And on and on and on. All certifiable nut cases. All amazingly bright and successful in business. Coincidence or pattern? Can people with normally-wired brains build empires founded on innovation?

History seems to prove otherwise. I've often wondered why. Business isn't supposed to be driven by anything less than cold, rational, calculating cogitation. And yet, nut cases seem to have a considerable advantage.

They all tend to attract luck. They're fanatical workers. Mesmerizing evangelists. Brutally brilliant. Often megalomaniacs with little to no people sensitivity and zero social skills. They're immensely competitive and intolerant - despising error and mediocrity. They don't process contradiction or rejection. You tell one of these people that their idea won't stick, and they'll look at you like you're a mental patient. Then promptly pitch it to someone else.

Yes I know there's a fine line between passion and madness. These folks often teeter between the two. But it's not just these famous names listed above. Those are just some of the famous ones. At the extreme end of the cuckoo "curve".

How about where you work? Almost everyone has that "kinda crazy" guy or gal at the office. You know, the eccentric one with the weird ideas every day. The "weird" one. With the bizarre eye-rolling concepts everyone calls "so totally inappropriate for us". The stuff that's "never been done before" or will "never be approved, no way, not ever". Because it's just too insane. You know, it's waaaay out there. So out there, matter of fact, that it probably deserves serious consideration, doesn't it?

That's precisely the kind of nutcase I want on my team. Because innovation never begins with sanity. And one of those nutty ideas is likely your next jackpot. One thing's for sure: none of your "same old" traditional ones will ever be.

And in this day and age of social media and marketing democratization, the possibilities afforded one single crazy individual to "change the world" (and your organization in the process) are virtually limitless. So if you've got the tools, and you've got the nut cases, you have the recipe for innovation. Talk about a strategic advantage. Be a shame to waste it wouldn't you think?

In a recent post, Seth Godin predicts the end of the "average worker". I say good riddance. Bring on the crazies! It's time to kick some butt :)

Not ready to get naked online? Then don't do social

Remember the old adage "don't do anything you wouldn't want your mom to read about in her morning paper"? You know, the kind of common sense knowledge sausage boy here apparently never possessed.

I call it the open kimono syndrome as it applies to businesses. Because any enterprise deciding to adopt social media needs a little self-reflection time before pulling the trigger. Here's why.

It's really difficult not to appear as yourself online. Matter of fact, I'd argue it's easier to fool people (if that's what you're into) in "real life" than on social media networks. I think the human race has had millions of years of training and learning on how to "deceive" socially for various reasons - some more legitimate than others. But nonetheless, it's ingrained in our DNA as anyone with kids will attest to.

Social media being a new medium for human expression and connection, it's a little harder to appear genuine on it when trying to deceive or build a fabricated image. We don't have the natural inborn aptitude to do so - just yet.

You can spot fakes and bullshit artists online way easier than in person. At least that's my experience. The way they use the networks, the language employed, the "flow" of their pitches just doesn't "click". It doesn't take that much experience on social networks to smell those folks a megabyte away.

The same holds true for businesses, and even more so in my opinion. Take this case, for example - a classic:

Yes, I know, it's in French, so let me explain for our Anglophone readers: this is a major telecommunications company in France telling a customer on its Facebook page to go take a hike if he's not happy with their service. Literally: "If you don't like it, the door is wide open". Take that, you pesky customer!

This is exactly what I mean about opening the kimono online. Chances are this company is truly like this internally - it's very DNA compels it to disrespect customers (they're an annoyance) and tell them off. They've probably behaved this way since day one. Being on social channels just makes it way more dangerous for them because now, the cat's out of the bag. If I were advising these folks, I'd tell them to get the hell out of social media dodge pronto! As my buddy Ron White used to say, "you can't fix stupid" - and you can't fix anti-customer DNA either. So why broadcast it to the world?

There's a couple of things you'll need to ensure you have before starting a social media journey - I don't care how large or small a business - please don't on-board social media channels unless:

#1 You really really love customers more than shareholders
I know, sounds tacky and everyone says they do, but all too often they lie (and they know it) or live in serious self-deception mode. Unless everyone from the CEO to the dude on your customer support lines genuinely live and breathe customers, don't do social.  What does it mean to "live and breathe" customers? It means this. If you'd rather go home at 5PM sharp than finish resolving a hairy customer service issue, spend a weekend skying instead of fixing a major product defect, shut up rather than raise hell about an unfair policy, or stay in your corner office rather than fly out in person and bring a replacement part to a customer in trouble, you're not "living and breathing" customers.

#2 You have empowered employees
Unless customer-facing employees are wholly and fully empowered to fix and/or make things right for customers, don't do social. I'm talking about the ability to make immediate high-impact decisions for customers in real time. Without having to go up an endless chain of command. Like refunds, discounts, rewards, or policy exceptions - whatever it take in your particular business to enchant and wow customers. There should never an "authorization" path to customer satisfaction. Ever. If you feel your people might misuse or abuse this empowerment, you don't have the right people in place.

#3 You're willing to admit mistakes in public and fix them
"We can't make this right for the customer. If we did, it would be like admitting we were wrong."

Admitting you screwed up something for a customer is the most powerful humanizing PR you can do. Say what? Your policy is to never apologize in public? That's ok then. Just don't do social. Caveat: if you find yourself apologizing too often, then just stop screwing up :)


"If we were do to this for this guy, and people found out, everybody would start screaming for the same!"


If you were to do this for this guy guess what, he'd probably tell everyone and his mother. You might actually get more customers and increase positive sentiment. In any case, anyone starting to "scream" to get a hold of your product or service is probably a good thing isn't it? If not, don't do social.

#4 You're willing to appear naked online
There will be times when it gets nasty out there. Customers will rant and scream. Employees will screw up. You internal processes will be "outed" in public - for better or for worst. Your cohesion as a company, its strengths and weaknesses will quickly seep through for all to see. It will all be amplified and "recorded" on the web for posterity. You'll have no room for backtracking or bullshitting people. Internally or externally.

The world at large and your own employees will see the "real" you - no matter how you try and paint things. Everyone will see the good along with the bad. No matter how hard Corporate Communications and Marketing try to serve and protect, I can promise you every so often, the kimono is going to fly open and people are going to get an eyeful. And if that's a risk you can't afford to take, don't do social.

@AutodeskCare: The Doctor is In!

Let me reassure - or maybe disappoint you - right off the bat: Autodesk will not be providing psychiatric help on its Customer Care Twitter channel :)

But in more ways than one, we are indeed embarked on a new way of looking at and providing customer service using social media. And there’s no turning back now. I had an opportunity over the past six months to help expand our Front Desk customer service offering onto Twitter. And it’s been one of the most interesting professional rides I’ve taken in a while.

A lot of what we experienced can be read in books dealing with social media on a grand global corporate scale. Olivier Blanchard's Social Media ROI would be my top pick. But it’s one thing to read about it, and quite another to actually “git ‘er dun”.

Now, truth be told, Autodesk already has mind-boggling social media presence. I can’t mention exact numbers, but suffice to say, when I started mapping and measuring our global social footprint using Radian6, my initial professional assessment was “holy crap!” :)

If you include Twitter, blogs, forums, Facebook, product and industry-focused communities, Google+, Youtube, etc you’re looking at one of the largest aggregated online communities on the planet. It just happened to be missing a “social” customer service angle. So we set out to create one.

I work on the Operations side for the Global Business Services division. Within that organization is a relatively new customer service group called Front Desk. Front Desk provides customer service for everything except technical product support. Anyone and everyone who needs help with business service issues - like licensing, registration, activation, or managing their subscription benefits - eventually ends up at our doorstep. With over 15 million customers, 160 products, a new cloud offering, millions of new consumer product users, 7,000 employees and a 24/7 global operating cycle, that’s a pretty tall order.

How do you scale support to something of that magnitude while building closer 1:1 relationships with millions of fans and customers? Why, social media, of course! And after much initial research, we picked Twitter as our first channel to exploit. Why? Because we saw a significant mass of customers on it. But more importantly, because Twitter is an “instant gratification” channel. And when customers get instant, “just-in-time” support, they get their work done faster. Which in turn makes them more productive, and exponentially happier. And that, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing.

Here are six highlights of this social media experience I thought might be worth sharing.

1. Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight
Setting up a social media presence for a large multi-million customer community requires serious tooling for both monitoring and engaging. Especially when multiple teams across three different geos must collaborate and provide round-the-clock support. All the listening and engagement work we did was using the Radian6 platform, a tool I had already used when working at Hublot. One of the most important things in selecting such a vendor is breadth of coverage (how many media types can they track), noise filtering, collaborative engagement features, CRM integration (SFDC now owns Radian6, and we use SFDC), and last but not least, support! On that last item especially, Radian6 has truly shined for us.

2. Don’t pull your weight, push it!
JIT (just-in-time) support - to use a term from my old software engineering days - requires fairly aggressive SLAs. It’s a totally different mindset than going out and “scanning” for issues (although we do that as well). In a JIT operation, information must be “pushed” in real time to support reps on multiple platforms as they happen. There’s a technology and philosophical mindset shift inherent in such an implementation. Both technology (alert-based) and training (reactive) must support that.

3. Tag, you’re it!
For lack of a better expression, this is the internal network map that allows you to immediately identify and communicate with the appropriate internal group or team to resolve a support issue. The larger the company, the more complex it gets to identify and “recruit” these touchpoints. And Autodesk is a very large place. People come and go. Folks are accessible via different channels. Some are more available than others. You need to create dynamic lists of contact points to route “incomings” as needed. Without this internal support map, customer experience can suffer. Put it online, let people edit it, establish buy-in, and manage expectations for every node.

4. From the classroom to the battlefield.
I initially underestimated the amount and type of training required. I also overestimated the effectiveness of “theoretical” or classroom training. In the end, we prioritized “live simulation training” over the rest - Creating dummy accounts and simulating customer interactions on Twitter. Everyone learns differently and at various rates, but nothing seems as useful as spending hours in a group pretending to be “out there”. There’s a certain heightened sense of pressure when doing these exercises that seems to enhance learning. In the end, nothing beats being “out there” on the battlefield. The worst enemy for a new social media field team is fear of mistakes. Minimizing this natural (and healthy!) apprehension is half the training challenge. The other half is enforcing consistency across tone, voice, and processes.

5. Social team synapse
In a global setting, social media teams need to constantly communicate with one another. Especially as various teams go on and off shift. Get this wrong, and the customer experience will suffer from inconsistency and confusion. Much like #3, you must never let what happens “behind the scenes” affect customer experience. Customers don’t give a hoot about changing shifts, vacations, illnesses, staff changes etc. Information and communication must flow naturally and centrally between all social team members. Special cases, heads-up on potential problems, cases in progress, delays, system outages, coverage “holes” - all these must be shared among team members in real time, and then logged in a database, so history (and accountability) can be tracked and measured.

6. Metrics moving parts
The “Bête noire” of social media is particularly tricky for us because we strive to go out and “occupy” existing social channels where customers “live” - and in so doing, we rarely own the channel - we’re essentially squatters - I like to think of it a bit more prestigiously as “Doctors without borders” as we fan out into the world where customers need us most :)

We took a similar approach with our own product and Cloud support forums. To succeed at this from a metrics standpoint, you need to quickly extract data and - if applicable - integrate it back into your CRM for analysis and reporting. This means you’ll be pulling from different internal feeds, analysis tools, platforms, and vendor databases or APIs - all in potentially different formats and varying levels of detail. This is a classic business intelligence ETL challenge applied to a real-time, unstructured, ad-hoc process. Solving it requires clear metrics requirements, good vendor relationships, programming skills, and a little help from your friends on the analytics team.

So what’s next?
We'll have to see how this new customer service channel works out for us. We went live on December 1st, so it is clearly very new. New for our team members, new for our customers. We wanted to start small, and grow the offering organically, slowly, and carefully. We'll be following a similar approach with other channels shortly. I'm really excited about the coming months!

A well-oiled social media customer service team doesn’t happen overnight. It takes good strategy, great people, technical resources, management support, and most importantly, team effort and flexibility. No rocket science there, except it’s often difficult at best to combine all these elements in a mammoth corporate entity.

I think we’ve managed to do this in the Front Desk group at Autodesk for a very simple reason: at the end of the day, everyone from the service reps to the CEO really truly cares about customer experience. It’s not just lip service. This alignment comes from the heart.

And as we move along growing and learning social media while strengthening the relationship we have with our millions of customers, I feel privileged to be part of this amazing social media project.

If you find yourself in a comfort zone...

You know my creed by now: "If you find yourself in a comfort zone, you're probably parked illegally." - It mostly has to do with the power of growth through change, and the ability to adapt via experience and continuous learning. Stagnation is bad. Change is enriching. As scary as it is, it makes us better, tougher, and more valuable. And in this day and age, I believe this to be particularly pertinent. This is why I've decided to take on a new career challenge recently, and to return to my professional roots, namely the software industry.

No I'm not leaving social media. And no, I'm not leaving Switzerland. Those are changes I was not willing to make. Hell no! :) But I will be looking at the luxury watch industry from the consumer perspective from now on. Because I just started in my new position as Global Web Support Content Manager at a software company here called Autodesk. Autodesk sells design software and chances are, if you look around you, inside or outside, pretty much every object you see (and every movie for that matter) has been designed and or prototyped using one or more of their products. Including your watch!

I think it's interesting to look back on my past experience in the luxury watch industry - things happened so fast and furious since November 2009 that I never really took the time to retrospect on the overall experience.

Well first of all, truth be told, I had the opportunity to join the great horology family through the "back door", as they say.  As anyone in this industry will tell you, people don't just waltz into this universe out of the blue. It's a closed, highly-sealed, jealously-protected world. I was one of the very rare folks who did, thanks to social media, and the foresight of a brand called Marvin Watches.

As such, I was also the first person do be doing social media full-time in the watch industry. Yes there were other forum or community managers, but I'm talking about someone 110% dedicated to everything and anything social media - and someone from outside the "family" - with free reign to try things out, experiment, make mistakes, and innovate. I was seen as some kind of UFO (especially hailing from California!) and was sometimes interviewed by the watch press about it.

In a short time, I identified most of the key industry influencers, and managed to learn enough about the industry to avoid screwing up too badly. In the process - and I didn't know this initially - I made some really good friends. I tried to pick up as much technical information as I could (thanks to J-F Ruchonnet, Elizabeth Doerr, and my buddy Ben at Hodinkee for a lot of it - to name a few), but that was the easy part. The political, cultural, and social intricacies of the industry came later, little by little.

I'd like to think we did really well with Marvin. When I first started out, you couldn't find the brand anywhere online. Zero mind share. No Twitter, no Facebook, no videos, no blog, no buzz, no press. Zilch. The 160 year old brand had completely vanished from the radar. Nobody had the remotest clue about it, and no one was covering it except of course for Ariel Adams, the human watch encyclopedia. Within six months we had a thriving community, strong presence on major social media channels, blogger interest and press (I think we did like 50 mentions in that time period), and industry recognition for being "on the edge" of this new horology frontier. And customers started realizing we were a different breed of watch company (heck, we actually talked to them!) - and they in turn started talking to others. The rest is history. We did a comparative analysis after six months on returns from traditional marketing/advertising vs. what we'd accomplished with a tiny social media budget (and I mean tiny). Social media won overwhelmingly hands down both in sales and mindshare.

Shortly thereafter, I had the opportunity to work directly for Jean-Claude Biver as Hublot's social media and web strategist. J-C, as many call him, is to the watch business what Steve Jobs is to the technology world. In other words, the giant of the industry. If you want to get to the top of the power ladder of horology, it doesn't get much better than this. And when you have the blessing and the ear of the industry's most powerful man on a daily basis, that's an experience you never forget. In a short time, we mapped a social media strategy for the company both for the Western world and China. We also launched Hublotista, their exclusive customer online community, brought Radian 6 in-house, built an editorial approach for a corporate blog, launched mobile apps, and a whole bunch of other behind-the-scenes projects I can't even talk about.

After all this I came up with the idea to create a web radio show called the "First live international web radio show about watches and the people who love them". Why? Well you can read the details here. In a little over six months, I interviewed virtually everyone who's anyone in the watch industry in short 30 minute segments live, uncut, and unedited. Why no one else in the industry ever thought of doing this in this format is beyond me - but I thought it was important to show the human sides of these people, and allow the public to access them one-on-one, no bullshit, up close and personal, and without the usual shielding from marketing, PR, and all the usual protective layers. I never had anyone blow me off or refuse an appearance. Well okay maybe two or three :) Thanks to the show, my audience and I met some truly amazing human beings. And if you want to really know and understand those who make this industry tick, then check out the replays. I promise you'll dig them.

In a fairly short while, I had a chance to evolve among a wide range of industry players - from the smallest shops to the largest corporate players of the industry. It was fast and furious. I made some really good friends in the process - bloggers, CEOs, watchmakers, journalists, photographers, agency people, PR folks, designers, and of course, fans and customers.

In the process, I hope (and think) I made some worthwhile contributions. No matter what happens, I can always say "I've been on the inside" - and that privilege is very, very rare, and very exclusive - believe me. It certainly gives you another perspective on life. Sometimes I think it's a little bit like being an astronaut. It's hard to truly describe it to "civilians" once you return to Earth - one of these things where "you just had to be there".

In light of my recent post about the Swiss watch industry's digital future, and facing an amazing opportunity at a software company called Autodesk ($8B market cap, 10M customers, 7,000 employees, 85% market share), I decided it would be wise and fulfilling to join their Global Content Strategy team. The company is on a major growth path (which, in these economic times, is truly impressive!), and pursuing an aggressive social media and customer relationship strategy on a worldwide scale that I'm very happy to be part of.

I'll keep on blogging here, obviously, about all things watches and social media - I'll be writing about the watch industry from the consumer side and perhaps contributing on other sites as well. Here's the first question I've been asking myself for the past several weeks: what the heck brand can I possibly buy for myself now that I know better? You'd have asked me two years ago, I would have said Rolex, like any other idiot. Having been on the inside certainly makes that decision a thousand times harder! :)

L'industrie horlogère suisse est-elle en train de rater la marche digitale?

Je réflechis depuis lontemps sur ce qui se passe dans le digital et les réseaux sociaux du monde de l'horlogerie de luxe suisse. D'ailleurs je passe une bonne partie de ma vie à apprendre et à cogiter sur le sujet :) Vous vous souviendrez peut-être de quelques billets récent évoquant une certaine léthargie, la difficulté de convaincre certains clients, les nuances du digital appliqué au luxe. Et plus récemment, bien sur, mon blog sur les marques horlogères pour lesquelles il doit faire bon bosser (dans le domaine du digital bien sur), et puis l'étude récente de L2 sur les QI des marques de luxe horlogères sur Facebook (c'est pas brillant).

De plus, comme vous le savez, je viens de rentrer de la conférence ChinaConnect 2011 qui s'est déroulée à Paris récemment. J'y ai découvert et confirmé une masse impressionante d'informations sur le digital et les réseaux sociaux la bas - J'en ai retenu quelques points intéressants sur ce blog aussi.

Et finalement, ceux d'entre vous qui me suivent depuis un bout de temps savent bien que, quoique né à Paris, je viens des USA ou j'ai passé quasiment toute ma vie avant de venir savourer les plaisirs de la vie helvétique. Cela ne me permets certainement pas de me prononcer en tant qu'expert sur le marché américain, mais j'ai quand même une petite idée de comment fonctionne une societé entièrement vouée aux réseaux sociaux depuis leur création - puisque, de plus, le concept à été inventé la bas! :)

En combinant tout cela avec un an et demi d'évolution et d'expérience diverse dans le milieux du luxe horloger dans le coeur même de la bête, je pense pouvoir partager avec vous quelques réflections rapport au status des réseaux sociaux et du development digital dans cette industrie.

Un an et demi, c'est court, surtout en Suisse ou le temps coule un peu plus lentement qu'ailleurs. Mais dans le monde du digital et des réseaux, c'est presque une éternité. Et ce que je constate, c'est que notre industrie est toujours, dans de nombreux cas, encore en train de "réflechir" à si il faut ou non se lancer dans les réseaux sociaux, et comment. Le problème, à mon avis, c'est que le temps de cette réflection est révolu. Dans les grands marchés sourtout, comme les USA, le Japon, ou la Chine, par example, la question ne devrait même plus se poser car la réponse est dorénavant plus qu'évidente.

Les marques qui se demandent encore si elles devraient vraiment se lancer dans les réseaux sociaux, en l'occurence, on raté le métro et sont probablement en voie de disparition. Dans les marchés émergents comme la Chine, l'Inde, l'Afrique, et certains pays du Moyen Orient, ne pas avoir de volonté ou de strategie digitale est suicidaire. C'est tendre le cou au bourreau.

L'autre problème, ce sont les codes du luxe qui eux-mêmes sont en pleine mutation. Pas au niveau produit vraiment, mais surtout au niveau psychologique, voir intellectuel et socio-économique - la crise a contribué à cela bien sur, mais n'en est pas l'unique catalyseur. Ces changements accompagnent des fluctuations socio-politiques au niveau global. Vous souvenez-vous de la scène finale de Terminator 2? Voila ou nous en sommes.

Le luxe a des niveaux de maturité et d'acceptance différents selon les marchés et les populations - voire la Chine (un si grand marché que même à l'interne ces nuances regionales sont énormes) comparée à l"Europe ou les USA, par example. Le luxe ne s'exprime plus comme avant, devenant parfois politiquement incorrect dans nos societés occidentales qui virent à gauche (les fossés d'inéquité se creusant), alors que la Chine, qui y aurait cru, est en fait en train de nous ré-apprendre à faire du vrai Capitalisme!

Face à ces changements subtils et fondamentaux, l'industrie horlogère suisse a, pour la plupart, complêtement raté le coche. Au lieu de se plier à la vague, d'écouter, d'en tirer les conclusions qui s'imposent, et d'agir, ils se raccrochent à la sainte "tradition" dogmatique, se refugiant encore et toujours derrière le protectionisme périmé du label "Swiss-Made" - alors que l'industrie même vient de se castrer à ce sujet, ce qui n'est pas tombé dans les oreilles sourdes des investisseurs étrangers.

Les réseaux sociaux (dans le sens générique du terme, donc le relationnel digital) sont la seule et unique façon de faire face à ces vagues de changement mondiaux pour plusieurs raisons:

Question de vitesse
Les changements arrivent três forts et três rapidement. Les marchés peuvent changer de gout, de préférences (les trends), et d'influenceurs d'un jour a l'autre. Le bouche-à-oreille, c'est instantané. Les institutions et les gouvernements peuvent facilement changer en un coup de Facebook, et cela en quelques heures parfois, et non plus sur des années comme au paravant. Ce nouveau rythme de vie est trop rapide pour une industrie trop lente qui peine à suivre. De plus, les étalements de production, l'établissement de magasins physiques, tout cela représente des investissements énormes de temps et d'argent axés sur 3-5 ans - donc sur des cycles qui ne correspondent plus à une vitesse de reaction essentielle dans ce nouveau contexte. Il serait logique d'investir et de re-axer une bonne partie des chaines de distribution classiques sur le commerce digital d'ailleurs (e/f/m-commerce) mais la encore, l'industrie est trop réticente et a pris des années lumiêres de retard, comme pour tout ce qui est mobile (smartphone, tablette, etc).

Question d'envergure
Il n'est pas possible d'agir sur un marché global partout à la fois et en permanence sans les réseaux sociaux. Les clients (ou les interessés) sont à présent partout, à toute heure, sans conscience des changements de fuseau horaires, et animés par une culture basée sur la gratification immédiate. Justifié ou pas, c'est ce que le client demande. Il faut donc lui répondre en conséquence. Sinon, le concurrent va s'en charger - et le concurrent, il risque fort de ne pas être Suisse lui. Il est casiment impossible de couvrir la planète physiquement, même avec un CEO et du personnel qui passe sa vie en avion. Ces jours sont révolus.

Question de savoir
L'information arrive tellement vite et tellement furieusement de toutes les directions à la fois qu'il faut être en écoute permanente et partout, au risque de rater quelque bribe cruciale. Déja, il faudrait mieux écouter et consulter le personnel à pied d'oeuvre dans les marchés, ce qui ne se fait parfois pas assez, mais sans les moyens digitaux de mesurer et d'évaluer le changement constant en temps réel, une marque courre vite à sa perte. C'est pain bénit pour la concurrence.

Question d'humain
Comme dit mon ami et ex-mentor Robbie Coleman, "les réseaux sociaux, ca fonctionne bien seulement entre les mains de ceux qui eux mêmes comprennent les gens". Ca à l'air tout bête comme aphorisme, mais c'est pourtant le bon sens. Beaucoup de marques ne comprennent pas leur clients existants ou potentiels - ou ne s'en donnent pas la peine. Sans les réseaux sociaux, ils ne peuvent pas progresser la dessus, et écouter pleinement, anticiper les besoins à venir, les problèmes existants sur le terrain, les attentes des gens, et les changements relationnels dans les rapport humains qui influent sur le luxe et sa consommation. Conclusion: des clients peu satisfaits qui parlent à d'autres clients potentiels, qui eux s'addressent - vous l'aurez deviné - à la concurrence, sans même passer sur votre site web!

Notre industrie a décidement mis bien trop longtemps à s'adapter ne serait-ce qu'au concept du digital et à l'accepter comme étant incontournable. Bon, il y a des exceptions, c'est clair. Il y a un an, j'aurais dit que cela était normal - après tout, c'est neuf tout ca. C'est révolutionnaire, c'est mal maitrisé, difficilement mesurable en tableaux Excel. Bref, beaucoup de caractéristiques qui passent difficilement dans la culture suisse, il faut reconnaitre.

Mais à present, de ne pas se décider et ne pas y aller à fond, je trouve cela suicidaire et frôlant l'incompétence. C'est maintenant ou jamais. Et si on ne s'y met pas sérieusement, d'autres s'en chargeront aux USA, en Chine, et autre part, la ou l'on s'y attend le moins (c'est toujours comme ça). D'ailleurs, les investisseurs chinois ont déja ouvert la chasse à la marque suisse depuis quelques temps. Ils ne sont pas fous eux! :) Comme disait mon arrière grand-mère, par ici la bonne soupe! Rien ne dure éternellement.

L'industrie horlogère suisse a survécu à bien des intempesties, L'avènement du quartz dans les années 80, combiné avec une méchante crise financiére a bien failli en avoir raison. Dieu merci, dans ces moments difficiles, il y a eu des hommes comme Jean-Claude Biver et Nicolas Hayek qui ont su sauver la partie et éviter la catastrophe totale. Mais cette fois-ci, j'ai du mal à imaginer qui pourrait se poser en sauveur d'une industrie en crise digitale qui, j'ai bien peur, va aussi lui infliger beaucoup de dégats dans les années qui viennent. Et cela me fait beaucoup de soucis.

Is the Swiss Luxury Watch Industry in Social Media Meltdown?

I've been thinking a lot about the state of social media in the luxury industry and, of course, specifically in the watch segment for obvious reasons. You might recalls some recent posts about this like the one about lethargy, dealing with clients, specific issues in luxury social media, and lately of course the one about cool "socially-inclined" brands, and watch brands with (or without) Facebook IQs.

Additionally, as you might know, I recently returned from the ChinaConnect 2011 Conference in Paris, France where I discovered (and confirmed) a boatload of information about social and digital in the world's largest market (read Part I, II and III of my feedback about it).

To top it off, those of you who have kindly followed me for a while know that, albeit French-born, I come from the USA, and that I spent my entire life there until recently. That doesn't make me a US market expert by any stretch of the imagination, but it does give me a little insight into how things should work in an optimal "social-mediatized" culture. Heck, social media was invented there! :)

Combine all this with eighteen months of learning and evolving in the Swiss luxury watch industry from the mothership, and I think all of the above combines to give me a pretty special (if not unusual) perspective on the whole matter of social media in tic-tock land.

Eighteen months is short by Swiss standards (by any standard for that matter) but almost an eternity in digital time. What I notice is that the industry is still "on the fence" in many cases - still trying to decide whether to go for it or not. Problem is, in my opinion, that the go/no-go decision point is way past the point of no return. In the largest luxury markets to date, namely the USA, Japan and China, the question of investing in "real" social media or not is beyond moot - the answer is quite obvious.

If you're wondering about engaging in social media at this point, you've missed the boat, and you are D.O.A. And in growing markets like China, India, Africa, some Middle East nations, and Brazil, to name a few, not having a social media strategy is just plain suicidal. You're giving your lunch away.

The other problem is that luxury codes themselves are mutating. Not products per say, but the intellectual and socio-economic factors affecting and defining luxury are shifting - and these changes accompany ongoing global socio-political fluctuations. Remember the ending scene from T2? We are there. Luxury has various levels of maturity and acceptability in different markets - namely Asia (China) versus Europe or the US, for example. Old codes are changing and evolving in a world where the consumers, not the brands, now hold power. Luxury is no longer expressed as it used to be - often politically-incorrect as the Western world is shifting liberal (in the US sense of the term) while China, of all places, is re-teaching us what Capitalism is all about!

The Swiss watch industry is for the most part completely missing the boat on this. Instead of riding the wave, listening, and drawing conclusions to drive longevity, they're paddling centuries of "tradition" dogmatism and safety in the comfort of the almighty "Swiss-Made" (which, incidentally, was recently castrated by the very own system it was designed to protect!).

Social media (in the generic sense) is the only possible way to "ride the wave" in the maelstrom we face. Why? Several reasons:

Velocity
Things move very fast. Markets change as do tastes, trends, and geographic power points. Institutions, opinions and governments now turn on a dime. Changes occur in days, not years. This new global life pace is way too fast for the Swiss watch industry to adapt adequately. Especially since production plans are etched out on 3-5 year periods, and physical retail locations represent huge investments. One obvious tactic would be to progressively re-route distribution to online channels (mobile or not) but the industry is far behind on e/f/m-commerce.

Reach
You cannot physically reach every corner of the world where something significant may or may not be happening, or where customers may or may not need support or an ear. Simply put, unless you are actively engaged in social media, you can no longer cover your markets effectively. No matter how many frequent-flyer miles your CEO might boast about. Period.

Intelligence
Information keeps coming in fast and furious from all directions. Unless you're listening broadly and continuously, you will inevitably miss vital pieces of intelligence. It's bad enough when brands don't listen to their own people in the field - which happens often enough - but not having the digital means to measure and evaluate ever-changing data is deadly in this new world (dis)order.

It's about people, stupid
As my friend and ex-mentor Robbie Coleman likes to say, "Social media only works at the hands of someone who understands people" - This apparent truism is often at the source of the industry's reluctance to fully embrace social media - in essence, most brands really don't understand people and, more dramatically, their own customers. Nor do they have the means to anticipate their future needs, aspirations or rewoven social fabrics.

Our industry has been slow - very slow - to fully embrace social. A year ago, I would have said this was understandable. Today, I believe it's suicidal and incompetent at best. The day of reckoning is here, and if we don't get our act together, believe you me others in the US and China soon will. In case you haven't noticed, Chinese investors have declared open season on Swiss watch brands in the past months. Nothing is eternal. Stay tuned...

The industry survived the economic crisis and Japanese quartz assault of the late 1970s and 1980s thanks in part to men like Jean-Claude Biver and Nicolas Hayek. But at the present time, I'm not seeing any such saviors for the digital crisis I believe will soon hit the Swiss watch industry - and that worries me.

Would the Smart Watch Brands on Facebook Please Standup? Hello? Anyone?

L2's Facebook IQ Ranking for luxury brands recently came out, and obviously I was interested in looking at watch company rankings in the report as I've been tracking them myself on Mark Zuckerberg's platform for over a year now. Here's the "just-the-facts, mam" low-down (out of 100 companies):

#24, IQ = 126 (gifted) - Omega
#28, IQ = 123 (gifted) - IWC
#34, IQ = 115 (gifted) - TAG Heuer

#44, IQ = 106 (average) - Mont Blanc
#46, IQ = 104 (average) - Piaget
#54, IQ = 97 (average) - Hublot
#65, IQ = 90 (average) - Vacheron Constantin
#66, IQ = 90 (average) - Raymond Weil

#71, IQ = 85 (challenged) - Jaeger-LeCoultre
#72, IQ = 84 (challenged) - Movado
#74, IQ = 83 (challenged) - Bulgari
#75, IQ = 80 (challenged) - Chopard
#78, IQ = 78 (challenged) - Cartier

#91, IQ = 57 (feeble) - Harry Winston
#92, IQ = 54 (feeble) - Audemars Piguet
#94, IQ = 47 (feeble) - Rolex
#98, IQ = 30 (feeble) - Patek Philippe

Interesting you say? My though exactly. You can read the post and associated report to draw your own conclusions, but I think the following stands out:

First, notice there are only 17 brands included (I didn't count Ralph Lauren or LV as they are not watch companies per say) out of probably 600 or so luxury Swiss watch brands (and 120 or so on Facebook). Now truth be told, I'm not sure why brands like Beaume & Mercier (140,000 fans) or Frederique Constant (65,000 fans) were not included. Still, we're talking about a very small minority of watch brands (5.6%) - even supposing twice as many (34) might be significantly present on Facebook.


Conclusion: this industry is still dipping a toe in the social media waters at best. And yes, I do believe Facebook to be a bellwether of social media "juice" for watch companies. Even if you take the luxury industry as a whole, fashion and cosmetics are significantly more advanced than the watch segment. This is not only for Facebook mind you, but for every other digital endeavor not the least of which are e-commerce and mobile (there are no interesting branded mobile watch apps currently in existence, even if Zenith somehow made this list, and e/f/m-commerce are still taboo).

Second, the high-end legacy "heritage" flagship brands really suck at this. AP, Rolex, Cartier, Jaeger, and Patek are at or near the bottom of the barrel. Matter of fact, Rolex doesn't even have a branded Facebook page. This is surprising since clearly we're not talking budget issues here. I think the people at the top are simply not interested in doing social media. To me it's no longer a matter of ignorance, but a calculated decision to simply stay out of the fray for whatever reason. Or maybe just "pretend" to be playing in the sandbox. They could easily kick ass in the socio-digital world if they wanted to. They choose not to.

It's funny because, before reading this report, I would have told you about progress, and how nicely watch brands have advanced up the social media ladder in the last 18 months. I would have talked about hope, progress, catching up to other luxury segments, and new, forward-thinking leadership (especially in the independent brands). But in fact, I would simply have been fooling myself - that's the price one pays for having industry blinders on too long.

Because when you look at the big picture - compared to other industry segments or, God forbid, other industries altogether (think FMCG, high-tech, software, fashion), the watch industry's presence on social media networks is anemic at best. Is it better than several years ago? Sure - couldn't be much worse - but all things considered, given available budgets, emergence from the "crisis" everyone so happily touts to the press, and well-documented benefits of social media in this industry, it's a truly pathetic situation. This report only serves to point that out for Facebook, but it's the same in other channels, when not worse.

The upside exists for the few smart brands who might somehow wake up and realize the amazing competitive advantage this situation actually presents. But I said "smart brands"... As my ex boss Jean-Claude Biver used to say, "We are very lucky, because we're at the bottom of the barrel, and so the only way is up!"

Ten Watch Brands to Work for in Social Media

No I didn't go out and take a survey, although I wish such a report would exist. But horology being a rather secretive world, it's never easy to get information about what it's like to be on the "inside" of watch companies. People clam up. I mean it's Switzerland for Christ's sake. Nobody opens their mouth here. Least of all in the tick tock world. And the few who have are swimming with the fishes on the bottom of Lake Geneva :)

No, what I'm talking about are the top ten brands I think (or know) might be cool to work for as far as social media is concerned. Mind you, this is based on my personal perception - Ok, and a little inside knowledge perhaps. Heck, I interviewed most of these people.

It's not easy doing social media work for any Swiss watch brand. Let's face it, most of them were dragged kicking and screaming into this new social thing. I think there are probably around 600 active Swiss watch brands, around half of which have a presence on Facebook - significantly less on Twitter or Youtube. And most of them still think social media is just conventional carpet-bombing marketing or PR applied to new improved digital channels.

Nonetheless, as we say in French, "Au pays des aveugles, les borgnes sont rois" (in a nation of blind men, one-eyed men rule - sounds better in French, trust me) and so there are, in my opinion, some more progressive "social" watch brands than others. Some brands who really "get it" - or at least strive to. But what might those be?

Here's a list I came up with (in no particular order) each with a 1 to 5 ranking for Product, People, and "Coolness" categories - all reasons (albeit not exclusive) to be doing social media work for a given watch company these days IMHO (note: I insert a question mark on the People scale when I'm not equipped to judge and a link to their interview when available).

#1. Bremont (Product: 4, People: 5, Coolness: 4)
Compelling history, British brand. Awesome owners, kick-ass product. Huge room for growth. [radio show]

#2. Linde Werdelin (Product: 5, People: 4, Coolness: 5)
Beautiful product, original, great Nordic design, smart owners, outside-the-box marketing. Genuine and personal customer-centric approach. [radio show].

#3. TAG Heuer (Product: 4, People: 3, Coolness: 3)
Only brand who can claim genuine watchmaking innovation in the past 400 years. Already very active online (enough so to score a 115 IQ on the L2 Facebook IQ report). Cool CEO who used to sell FMCG with a great pool overlooking Lake Geneva. I know this because I interviewed him a short while ago :)

#4. MB&F (Product: 4, People: 5, Coolness: 5)
Owner Max Busser is an industry legend in the world of independent brands. Progressive and original. UFO product. Powerful, intelligent and opportunistic marketing and communication approach. Max was also my first guest on the radio show.

#5. Maurice de Mauriac (Product: 3, People: 4, Coolness: 3)
Under-the-radar brand in Zurich with solid bespoke product. Exclusive niche market. Brilliant founder (also not from the industry) with an offbeat and very subtle humanized one-on-one marketing approach.

#6. Bell & Ross (Product: 5, People: ?, Coolness: 5)

First brand to have an online boutique. Amazing product. Consistent and smart marketing guns. Customer-centric. Never met anyone there but clearly this brand "gets it" and has big guns.

#7. Xetum (Product: 3, People: 4, Coolness: 3)
Based in San Francisco. Unbelievably cool and humble founder (rare in this industry) Jeff Kuo (not from the watch industry) has an original, clean, simple and genuine product line. Big potential in key US and Chinese market segments IMHO. [radio show]

#8. IWC (Product: 5, People: ?, Coolness: 3)
Iconic German brand founded by an American. With L&S, probably one of the most breathtaking watch products out there. Clean, crisp, and...German. Very active online and a solid based of rabid fans community. Their forum manager Michael Friedberg will be a guest on my show next week actually.

#9. Audemars Piguet (Product: 5, People: ?, Coolness: 2)
Too iconic a brand to even be cool anymore :) - AP is what most brands can only dream of one day becoming. They seemed to have gotten a good start on social media but then Hublot lured their employee away, and since then I'm not sure what's going on there. They had an ad out, which I applied to - but never even got an acknowledgement for. And their CEO never answered my request for an interview - Come to think of it, not sure why I'm including them in here... :) Oh, yes, it's Genta's Royal Oak, silly me! :)

#10. Jaeger-LeCoultre (Product: 5, People: 3, Coolness: 2)
Iconic brand. No marketing per say as the product itself is the "marketing message".  CEO Jerome Lambert told me to take a hike when I asked him to appear on the show, which didn't really surprise me as this type of communication is not really in the brand's genes. Nonetheless the gal responsible for their social media initiatives is really cool and quite good IMHO (although not sure why she protects her Twitter account...)

ChinaConnect 2011 - Discovering the Chinese Consumer Part III

In this exciting installment, we pick up on additional key points of the ChinaConnect 2011 conference in Paris last week (see Part I and Part II).

#11. Money
Following the money (or its sources rather) can be a little tricky in China. You have old money and new money, money made in the public sector (lots of corruption there) and money made in the private sector (natural resources and real estate being two of the biggest sources). Then you have people making the transition between public and private, and those benefiting from family connections (a huge booster in China). The Chinese culture is not a wealth flaunting one - discretion is prized in China. For every exuberant millionaire, there are two others hiding behind him.

#12. Cars, cars, cars
The Chinese market is gaga over cars. Cars are the most discussed topics online (blogs, BBS, etc) closely followed by mobile. Audi and Mercedes Benz got smart about the Chinese market years ago. Both went after civil servants and high-level government workers with Audi completely controlling low-end to mid-level managers and Benz basically owning the upper crust segment. Everyone in the Chinese government either owns a set of rings or a three-pointed star. Matter of fact, that's how you recognize them :)

#13. UGC
I knew this before the conference, but it was pointed out there again, and I think it's strategically important - Chinese people are very big on content creation - like 43% big versus our meager 23% in the West (namely the USA, Europe is lower).  This means they are culturally a much more "engaged" audience than the US and clearly Europe.

#14. Avatars
Chinese people aren't huge fans of "self-branding" - They would much rather use an online avatar (cartoon self-representation) than an actual mugshot or picture. As a result, social media networks (like QQ) encourage users to "dress up" (customize) these avatars using products like eyewear, fashion, or makeup. And this can be brand-driven for the right price. The same can be said for application "skins" - People can customize their QQ apps with their favorite brand themes and colors. Of course brands pay through the nose for this priviledge. Katching.

#15. Micropayments
My understanding is they're way more mainstream in China that in the West. China has no credit cards but plenty of debit ones apparently. Gaming is huge in China and companies like Tencent are making a killing on micro-selling every object imaginable to digital players from farming tools to ustensils and clothing (which can also be branded - now you're collecting from the brands as well - katching).

ChinaConnect 2011 - Discovering the Chinese Consumer Part II

Part II of my series of insightful tidbits on the Chinese market picked up during the ChinaConnect 2011 Conference in Paris last week (see Part I here).

#6. It's All About Video
There's no Youtube in China - as usual, there are several Chinese versions of online video like Youku or Tudou. Video watching and sharing is hugely popular over there - much more so than in the Western world. See what luxury brands are doing lately on Youku. These sites are used and function like cable TV. And posted videos are considerably longer than those we are used to on Youtube. This is partly due to the fact that Chinese TV tends to suck, notwithstanding its massive coverage (CCTV-1, the official State channel is most popular for, guess what, news!)

#7.  C2C
"Copy to China" - It's what they call the Chinese concept of copying then adapting existing social networking platforms. For every SNS we have in the West there are several different Chinese versions of it. This results in a hugely complex and diffuse landscape of everything from MSN to Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube "clones" - some of which are regionalized or targeted at various age and/or cultural segments. Yes, it's complicated.

#8. Mobile Devices
Virtually everyone in China has a mobile device (smartphone mostly) with QQ running on it. There are close to a billion mobile devices in China. Do the math. Did you know people look at their smartphone on average 900 times a day? This is what Warwick Hill, 3rd Space CEO claimed during the conference. Mobile is an extension of the Chinese body - it's an inborn part and parcel of the Chinese netizen. Not having a mobile strategy for a brand in China is simply nuts.

#9. Beauty Codes
The Chinese have different beauty codes than we do in the West. Especially for women. White skin evokes death (heroin chic look? Don't even think about it). Haggard, distant looks are not appreciated. Seductive poses and any sexual suggestions are frowned upon. Lips should be small and red, not voluptuous. And a woman should always be smiling and looking you in the eyes in an ad. Slanted eyes with corners pointing up are caricatural (and insulting) at best.  Why do many brands still violate these codes year after year in their advertising is a hard to understand.

#10. M, F and E-commerce
In lower-tier cities, there are few malls, stores, and retail outlets. Especially for luxury brands. People like to shop online by necessity. Additionally, the logistics of online commerce in China are extremely cost-effective, and much cheaper than brick & mortar investments. Why? Because shipping and delivery are virtually free for companies. It doesn't cost a fortune to maintain armies of bicycle-riding delivery people. China Post, on the other hand, has no notion of "bulk mailing". And forget about the convenience of tracking a parcel. Nonetheless, stuff does get to you, and if not, you don't have to pay!

ChinaConnect 2011 - Discovering the Chinese Consumer Part I

Hanging out during a break

I've been pitching the first ever European conference on digital marketing to the high-end Chinese consumer for many weeks now. I thought I'd get a couple of good tips on this fascinating and remote market, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be coming home with such a treasure trove of insight. Short of actually spending a lot of time in China - the old "boots on the ground" approach - this conference was as close as I've come to a better understanding of the challenges at hand for brands who want to (1) enter the largest market in the world, and (2) not embarrass themselves in the process. In the next several posts, I'll do my best to share some of the highlights and salient points of the conference from my social media perspective.

#1 Market composition
Contrary to popular belief, China is not a homogeneous market. Rather, it behaves more like a regional federation of sorts with different areas, customs, languages, populations, and even cuisines. So when you talk about the 470,000,000 or so Chinese netizens, you're really talking about a fragmented and diverse population. And trying to market to the whole instead of carefully targeting on a sociao-regional basis is not an optimal strategy.

#2 Stereotypes
The Great Wall, the Forbidden City, past Emperors - all the classic Western geographic or political stereotypes applied to China do not speak to the new generation. Matter of fact, you might even be insulting them by applying such themes to your product - I'm thinking, for example, of luxury watch dials depicting the Forbidden City. It's "has-been" and says "I haven't bothered to learn about the new China".

#3 Age matters
Yes, China has an aging population, like much of Europe, and that in itself constitutes a major challenge to its future growth. Nonetheless, the vast majority of Chinese netizens are under 34. The ratio is even larger for  mobile communities. The average QQ user is in the 17-25 age range. If you're not talking to a young, tech savvy, mobile-ingrained audience, you're not talking to China (unless you're Vacheron Constantin I suppose).

#4 Kids and the Cult of Family
Remember the one-kid policy? Guess what: it means that kids are at the center of Chinese life. If you figure four grandparents, two parents, and a housekeeper, that's seven people on average dedicated to serving each Chinese papoose. This, along with the cult of family, are two of the most powerful marketing levers in the Chinese market.

#5 Marketing Works. Sometimes.
How about a non-Chinese brand selling tea to an entire Chinese nation? Lipton was at the conference explaining that one. You see, Chinese people drink green tea. And they don't like black tea. That's right - and Lipton found out the hard way. Worse yet, they don't like or use tea bags. Bummer if your entire product line revolves around these two things. Nonetheless, Lipton was still able to overcome these great odds and penetrate the market by positioning their teas as strategically-timed "avant-garde" social experiences (and hiring the right bloggers). The "Lipton Moment" has now become hip in China with the younger professional crowd. Hey, everybody's doing it - maybe you should as well! Which comes to show that marketing does work sometimes, if not cheaply :)

Nathalie Omori on categorizing Chinese wealth