BOOK REVIEW: The Cluetrain Manifesto

banging on about advertising, marketing and social media

7 December 2009 One Comment

by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls and David Weinberger

Reviewed by Gavin Heaton from Servant of Chaos

Gavin (or Mr. Chaos to you) has developed digital communication strategies for a number of global brands including McDonald’s and IBM. He is the co-publisher of The Age of Conversation and The Perfect Gift For A Man. He also preaches a powerful preso and busts a bodacious blog. Moving on…

Gavin loves stories. And he is a great story teller. I had the pleasure of listening to a presentation from Gavin at MarketingNow earlier this year. I also had the pleasure of meeting him afterwards. What struck me about Gavin was his passion for communication and the way that he focused on the journey, not the channel. Gavin often talks about this book (or for some, the Social Media Bible) and he’s also written a post about it.

Overview

The Cluetrain Manifesto was written 10 years ago when we were all in wonderment over online shopping, forums and intranets. It is well ahead of it’s time as it talks about the new expectations of business and the new way of talking with your customers. Written by tech heads, it’s really about communication and less about technology. This is why it remains a must read today.

I consider it an important book because…

You know that saying, “It’s better than being poked in the eye with a sharp stick”? I always thought this saying didn’t make a lot of sense – after all, blindness, even temporary blindness is way down my list of fun experiences. But after reading The Cluetrain Manifesto, that’s exactly how I felt. Blinded.

I had just moved into my first full time marketing role and felt I had only a tenuous grip on the fundamentals. I was assiduously putting the 4 Ps into practice, building out my marketing and promotions calendar for the year ahead and getting the early buy-in of my executive board. It was all shaping up quite nicely. Somehow I ended up on the website for The Cluetrain Manifesto and was immediately drawn into its spell:

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.

On the one hand, this seemed to make perfect sense. On the other, it didn’t fit within my newly forming understanding of marketing practise. What happens when the intelligence of markets outperforms the business and brands that you work for? In B2B especially, thought leadership is one of your most powerful storytelling devices – so what happens when it can be discounted? What can you use to demonstrate your expertise? And worse still – what happens when conversation erupts?

There seemed to be no pointers that could help me. I scoured the marketing plans left in the bottom drawer by the previous marketing director. I flicked through the budgets, the collateral and a large file of emails duly printed out and arranged in date order. Nothing. From my desk I could see the company mantra printed on the wall – and with each glance the words seemed to make less sense. I rolled the words around on my tongue. They tasted like cardboard. It was as if each reading depleted the words of what little meaning remained. I couldn’t tell whether I was witnessing the demise of my own new career or the birth of something new.

Already, companies that speak in the language of the pitch, the dog-and-pony show, are no longer speaking to anyone.

As luck would have it, one of my main projects for the year appeared to sync with this line of thinking. Each year, our company released a book written by one of the senior consultants. My job was to promote the book and to launch it across Asia Pacific. And as the book was about the way that enterprises were more intimately connected through the power of relationships, it seemed that the Cluetrain might just have some pointers that I could use:

Companies that don’t realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity.

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Rather than talking about our expertise with relationships – what would happen if we put those relationships to work? I wondered whether we may be able to create or tap into the conversations that were happening at the workplaces of our most important customers. I wondered what this might take and began thinking about how this might come to life – how, indeed, we could work with our consultants to seed these conversations, to get around the barriers and to put a “human face” to the corporate conversations that we wanted to facilitate.

As it turns out the book and its launch across Asia Pacific was a great success. I put together an integrated strategy that used direct mail, email marketing, a microsite, some flash-based cartoon style animation and personal follow-up. Using the principles of the Cluetrain, I designed and crafted a story that spoke directly to the executives (and their gatekeeper assistants) in a way that stood out from the run-of-the-mill marketing efforts of our competitors. Rather than 3-7% conversion rates, we had almost 60% of people respond and show up for our launch events. From that point on, I was sold on the power of storytelling, of non-jargon marketing, and making the medium your message.

If you have never read The Cluetrain, download the free eBook or start with the 95 theses available on the website. It may not change your life, but it might just change the way you market.

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Have you read this book? What did you think? Leave your comments below.

One Comment »

Daniel Oyston said:

Nice review. I have this book in my top draw and plan to read it overt he holidays.

Bushy – I ahven’t forgoten about writing a review and am thinking about “Raving Fans” to review. I have read it once but we are making it front and centre at work so need to read it again.

# 9 December 2009 at 7:11 am