Conversational Capital: How to Create Stuff People Love to Talk About (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Tony Babinski (Contributor), (Contributor)
Key Phrases: sensory oddity, exclusive product offering, brand ambassadors, Conversational Capital, Cirque du Soleil, Red Bull (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Exclusive Conversation on Conversational Capital with Author Bertrand Cesvet

What is the most common mistake made by individuals seeking to harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing?
All too many individuals seeking to harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing focus on the vehicles through which word-of-mouth is perpetuated, rather than the triggers of word-of-mouth to begin with.

The number of times we've heard marketers yearn for a presence on social media or a user-generated content campaign is nauseating. Our response is pretty universal ~ it doesn't matter that you give your consumers a place to talk if they don't have anything good to talk about.

Thus, our central message is to focus not on the tools, but on the substance of conversations. The only way to create resonant and sustained word-of-mouth is to focus on the inherent value of the experience itself.

I found it interesting that Conversational Capital should not be termed "buzz." Why is this so important?
Buzz is something created around an experience rather than related to the experience itself. Let's say I put a pedometer in a box of Fruit Loops cereal and proceed to call it "healthy" because the pedometer encourages one to exercise. I've done nothing to change the experience or the nutritional value of the cereal itself - only created a stunt to project a temporal aura of "health."

Do smaller companies have an advantage in building Conversational Capital?
Being small isn't necessary, but it helps. Why? Because engineering and implementing Conversational Capital requires three things: 1) the ability to be nimble, 2) the capacity to be entrepreneurial (and thus embrace some degree of risk-taking) AND 3) the foresight to take a long-term view of the development of your brand, unconstrained by investors clambering for short-term profit-taking.

That being said, many large organizations have successfully preserved these three competences. Look at an organization like Southwest Airlines - the largest domestic air carrier in the US. The firm has managed to develop Conversational Capital principally because its empowered culture is by its very nature, entrepreneurial.

So in essence, the ability to act small is what matters more than being small.

How wary should marketers be with the double-edged sword of myth?
Myth must be rooted in some fundamental truth about the brand, the brand experience, or the brand's founding. Otherwise myth lives in the realm of lies, rather than as a story that's told and retold. Marketers can temper their wariness by ensuring that the myth(s) around their brand are continuous ~ it is continuity that keeps the cutting edge of that proverbial sword away from you.

What industries do you feel are under-utilizing Conversational Capital?
Industries that view their customers with disdain or an attitude of dismissiveness.

Look at the North American Air Transport sector. Airlines continue to pare service in a continuous quest for cost-cutting, thereby commoditizing themselves rather than developing the ability to build brands and extract premiums.

Look too to the North American Auto Industry. It is in crisis principally because it didn't listen to the talk around its brands. And it didn't build products worthy of conversation.

Many further examples exist, from education, to financial services, to telecom, to department stores. But ultimately, the realization must be apparent that not everyone can be a Conversational Capital king. But each industry should have its star(s).

Product Description

"In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell presents an important idea without any 'how to.' Now Bertrand Cesvet provides the 'how to' you need to create 'Tipping Points' for your business and success. This book is a compelling presentation of a powerful idea. This is how the new world will do business. Highly recommended if you care about your future." Stewart Emery, coauthor of international best-seller Success Built to Last "Ultimately, magic is unexplainable. Still, Conversational Capital provides the most insightful analysis of what makes our shows ring in the heart of fans." Guy Laliberte, founder, Cirque du Soleil "Like all great ideas, Conversational Capital is at its core simple: word-of-mouth momentum can be created, harnessed, and used to build consumer passion for a brand better and more cost-effectively than almost any other marketing medium." Rupert Duchesne,CEO of Aeroplan "Marketing is an art that Conversational Capital turns smartly into science. This book provides the complete prescription for getting consumers excited about your ideas." Jim Champy, coauthor, Reenginering the Corporation, and author, Outsmart!Embed into Your Products and Experiences the Ingredients that Drive Advocacy: *Create products and services that consumers find truly significant*Intensify consumption experiences to transform your brands into market leaders*Don't settle for serendipity: manage and control the word-of-mouth around your brand by manipulating eight powerful experience amplifiers For all the books that speak of the value of consumer advocacy, few indicate how to create it to begin with. Armed with a compelling set of examples from their own work in fostering leading brands, the authors reveal the triggers of word-of-mouth and a process to embedding them in your own products, helping you create stuff people love to talk about. From Bertrand Cesvet, chairman of Sid Lee, a leading purveyor of experiential design and communications services that leverages commercial creativity for breakthrough brands including Cirque du Soleil, adidas, and Red Bull. 1% of the proceeds from the royalties earned by the authors will be donated to the One Drop Foundation. The mission of the One DropTM Foundation is to fight poverty around the world by giving everyone access to safe water.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: FT Press; 1 edition (August 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0137145500
• ISBN-13: 978-0137145508
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #502,002 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good observations but not a 'How-to-build a strong brand", December 9, 2008

By	L. C Glover "Varied Interests" (Half Moon Bay Ca, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

(What's this?)

Overall:
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The book is a high-level description of "Conversational Capital" or what makes a consumer into an active advocate for your brand combined with the description and benefits of lifestyle brands. The key concepts are: Rituals, Initiation, Exclusive product offering (EPO), Over-delivery, Myths, Relevant Sensory Oddity (RSO), Icons, Tribalism, Endorsement and Continuity. Each concept is given examples using well-known brands to help you understand the concept. The designing process is defined at a high-level with some useful tips. However, it does not really have anything revolutionary or even barely evolutionary.

If you have taken more than basic marketing classes, you will see the validity in the concepts but will be wishing for more substance on how to make your brands into the described brands.

Take-aways from the book:
Rituals -- "Rituals are behaviors or rites we engage in to mark certain activities as exalted. When ritual behavior becomes associated with a consumer experience, it is marked out as more resonant" (pg. 68)

Initiation -- "Initiation is a special subset of ritual. When consumers feel they have worked a little harder to acquire special knowledge of or access to a consumer experience, they feel set apart." (pg. 75)

EPO -- "EPO occurs when a consumer experience offers a notable degree of individualization. When you feel something has been designed just for you, or in a distinclty personal way, you can claim an experience as your own, it becomes more salient. EPO sings in high-end experiences, but we've also observed it in simple products such as Cracker Jack or the Kinder Egg." (pg. 83)

Over-delivery -- "Over-delivery is an aspect of EPO. It's what happens when brands make an experience feel special by going much further than they have to in terms of customer satisfaction. Over-delivery occurs when consumer experiences include features that anticipate needs and desires consumers haven't even thought they would want but end up loving. In the end, it can be understood as an attitude; the desire to be the best and keep improving, just for the sake of it." (pg. 89)

Myth -- "Myth might be the most critical engine of Converstational Capital because it embodies a brand story. Essentially, stories set brands apart because they are so important in the identity-forming and affirmation process. We are the sum of our stories and we look to myth to provide them. If your brand is powered by myth, it might be all you need." (pg. 97)

RSO -- "RSO stands for relevant sensory oddity. IT can be observed when a consumer experience surprises and delights a full range of sense. IT recognizes that human beings see, touch, hear, taste, and feel and communicates with them on that level. However, doing so in a manner tha is relevant, and resonates with the consumer experience in a meaningful way, is key." (pg. 105)

Icons -- "Icons are signs and symbols that are rich in evocative power and associations. Almost anything can take on the shorthand power of an icon: places, buildings, people, logos, labels, and more. The key is that these icons have to evoke a compelling brand story." (pg. 113)

Tribalism -- "In essense, Conversational Capital occurs when brand stories become part of the identity formation and affirmation process. Determining which tribe you belong to is a bedrock component of that process. Tribalism takes place when consumer experiences draw the like-minded together in a quest for mutual discovery." (pg. 121)

Endorsement -- "Endorsement is not a matter of well-known people speaking for your consumer experience. Rather, it is a matter of consumers advocating on your behalf in a free and unsolicited manner. This is the most powerful form of marketing there is. However, endorsement comes with a built-in caveat. If you are endorsed, you need to live up to consumer support. If they recommend you to someone who is disappointed, they look bad, too." (pg. 125)

Continuity -- "Conversational Capital demands continuity. Because it is about creating consistent brand stories, it works best when there is no disconnect between how a product is designed, marketed, and perceived. The best brands are the result of a united, cohesive strategy, and they walk the talk." (pg. 131)

Prose:
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The book was clearly written quickly with marginally editting. The book is a fast read where the text is concept light. So, it is good for getting some key marketing vocabulary with supporting real-world high-level examples.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Food for thought, November 20, 2008

By	Michelf "Pajama Lady" (Orange County, CA) - See all my reviews

(What's this?)

I'm an MBA student and I'm really interested in "word of mouth" and "trusted voice" sorts of marketing techniques. The idea of what we consume, how we consume, how we communicate about it to the people around us and my own experience in that is what drew me to study marketing. So this book seemed like it was really written for me. I wish I had read it before I went back to school, I would have had more to talk about in certain classes I've already taken.

The book is rather thin looking, it's less than 200 pages and that includes a glossary of terms and an index. As a result, it is a fast read and gives some really interesting examples. Unfortunately, it's a bit... "conceptual" is the word I'm going to use. What the book does is explain what Conversational Capital is, it gives you a vocabulary for ideas that you may already have but just didn't have in the front of your brain until you had a name for it.

If you're looking at this book because you want to know exactly what steps to take to generate conversational capital for your business you will probably be disappointed. But it can still be valuable to you. It's not a list of instructions it's "food for thought". And, in my experience, thinking is a really good idea.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Spark and Tender for Ideas, November 19, 2008

By	Alain B. Burrese "Author, Speaker, Mediator, ... (Missoula, MT) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

(What's this?)

I found "Conversational Capital: How To Create Stuff People Love to Talk About" by Bertrand Cesvet with Tony Babinski and Eric Alper to be an interesting read. I really didn't know what to expect as I started, but the conversational style with many real life examples to illustrate the authors' points kept me interested and made me stop and think of other ideas as I read the text.

The book focuses on why certain brands outperform others. It is a study on market leaders and their products and services. Rather than just sell a product or service, the authors note that these leaders create experiences that provide fuel for conversations about the products and services being sold. The authors contend that creating such experiences is a process that can be influenced. This book will get you thinking about how you can do just that.

This is a book about creating word-of-mouth about your product or service. Word-of-mouth can be built, and can be an asset to increase the value of your brand. And as the authors point out, ignore it and it could become a liability. By studying different leading brands, the authors came up with a series of observations that help generate and spread positive word-of-mouth. They call these observations Conversational Capital. This is different from creating "buzz" about a project.

In the text, the authors describe and explain what they call the eight engines of Conversational Capital. These include Rituals, Exclusive Product Offering, Myths, Relevant Sensory Oddity, Icons, Tribalism, Endorsement, and Continuity. And while sometimes one not familiar with marketing jargon or the terms used by the authors might have to read something twice, I found the actual examples of products and services I was familiar with to be refreshing and relevant to grasping the concepts the authors were explaining.

I would agree with the authors that positive word-of-mouth results in timely, measurable results. I have seen the effect of positive word-of-mouth in my business. I also think the authors are correct when they say "people will talk." If you read this book and implement the suggestions and strategies discussed, you can make sure they are talking about you by creating experiences that are more meaningful and more likely to be talked about.

If you are selling a product or service, this book just might be the ticket to help you create something people will talk about. I would have liked to have seen a little more depth into the topic, and maybe a guide for implementing the Conversational Capital strategies, or engines, to one's business. But it does get one thinking about how to create better experiences, and this thinking should lead to implementing strategies, therefore I like the book not as a guide, but as a spark and tender to get the fire started.

Reviewed by Alain Burrese, author of Hard-Won Wisdom From the School of Hard Knocks and the dvds: Hapkido Hoshinsul, Streetfighting Essentials, Hapkido Cane, the Lock On Joint Locking Essentials series and articles including a regular column on negotiation for The Montana Lawyer. Alain Also wrote a series of articles called Lessons From The Apprentice.