Last night I spoke to a class filled with entrepreneurs at St. Thomas University. The topic was Seize the Market. I suggested they change the theme to: Have the Market Seize You. The game of marketing is different now, I informed them. The customer is in control.

Andy Sernovitz's blog, Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That. has a great example of a customer taking matters into his own hands. In this case the disgruntled customer is Ad Age columnist and NPR On The Media host Bob Garfield. His nifty little blog, comcastmustdie , invites those with a beef against the cable to giant to vent their issues. Mr Garfield is on a mission to make big corporations treat people better.

From Comcast-must-die.com:
"Congratulations. You are no longer just an angry, mistreated customer. Nor, I hope, are you just part of an e-mob. But you are a revolutionary, wresting control from the oligarchs, and claiming it for the consumer. Your power is enormous. Use it wisely."

-Jeff

Here is a simple idea. Put a sticker on paper towel dispensers to remind people that paper comes from trees so it's best not to waste it. That's what These Came From Trees is all about. But in addition to being a nice way to help reduce waste, it's a great example of how to use free social media and web 2.0 to promote a cause, market a product or just experiment with an idea.

-Jeff

This morning I had a conversation with a friend who's spent the last 30 years selling real estate. Today, in the midst of a real estate melt down, he's desperate to find buyers. The problem is, most of the motivated buyers are sitting on unsold houses because they have unrealistic expectations for what their houses are worth. They're stuck.

So you would think that the best prospects would be renters because they don't have a house to sell and with home prices falling and lots of inventory it would be a great time for them to own. But renters seem to have little motivation to buy at a time when fear of declining values and predatory lending is all around them. They are stuck too.

The agents keep saying: "it's a great time to buy!" But agents always say that. To a Realtor it's always a good time to buy and a good time to sell. If the agents really believed it was a good time to buy, they'd be buying. But most agents really aren't savvy investors, they're salespeople.

What are the motivating forces that would un-stick the hopeful seller and the fearful buyer? Sellers want to get more money, so how can an agent play on a seller's hopeful expectation for a comeback? The buyers are afraid of buying a declining asset. How can an agent influence them on the basis of that fear? In other words, the seller and the buyer have to change positions. If the buyer can convince the seller that prices are going to go down, the seller will lower the price out of fear of getting even less. If the seller can convince the buyer that prices will rise again, then the buyer will feel motivated to buy. But buyers and sellers don't talk to each other. They communicate through agents.

We know that one persuasive advocate can convince several skeptics. So if my agent friend arranged a conversation between a persuasive seller and a group of skeptical buyers he may get more buyers. If he could get a persuasive buyer to talk to a group of skeptical sellers he may get more realistic sellers. An even better approach for a real estate agent might be to enlist sellers who were persuaded to lower their price to talk to other sellers and buyers who's fears were assuaged to share with other buyers how they overcame their doubts.

But how?

That's where the fun begins.

-Jeff

This blog post was going to be about starting conversations. But when I signed on to Blogger the sign-in page featured a screen shot from the Postsecret blog and a recommendation from the blogger staff. Easily distracted I went to the blog and I was instantly moved and inspired. If WOM marketing is about engaging in honest conversation what can we learn about the need to hold and share secrets? I guess this post is about starting conversations.