Steven Van Belleghem - The Conversation Manager: The Power of the Modern Consumer, the End of the Traditional Advertiser

This ebook published in 2011 by

Kogan Page Limited

120 Pentonville Road

London N1 9JN

UK

www.koganpage.com

Steven Van Belleghem, 2012

E-ISBN 978 0 7494 6660 2

Contents

Thanks and acknowledgements

Y ou never write a book alone. Without the help and encouragement of many people, this particular story would never have reached the printing presses.

During recent years, I have had the pleasure and good fortune to work with a team of passionate and innovative people. My thanks in the first instance therefore go to the management team of InSites Consulting: Tim, Joeri, Niels, Kristof, Christophe, Sam and Filip. If you are writing a book, it is highly motivating to know that your company is prepared to give you the necessary time and space to do it full justice. Thank you for believing in me and my story.

Thanks, too, to all the other staff at InSites Consulting who have contributed in whatever manner, great or small, to the finished text. Feedback on a presentation; the passing on of a useful link; the placing of an article on the internal knowledge platform; a story about a brand experience: one way or another, they have all helped to inspire me. It is an honour to work with such a caring, sharing team. Thank you everybody!

But our team was not my only source of inspiration. Over the years, many customers have offered us the chance to grow in this fascinating research domain. This has given me the luxury of gaining insights into the workings of many interesting companies, and provided the yeast to the gradual fermentation of my Conversation Manager ideas. My special thanks go to Hans Schmeits, Rene Hansen, Rudi Van Campenhout and Catherine Franeau (UCB), Alexis Bortoluzz i (Goodyear), Kristin Blond, Lode Hoste and Kim Gils (VMMa), Catherine Herssens (Unilever), Chris Ven (Pfizer), Sabien Deboodt (Sanofi Pasteur MSD), Debbie Bogaert (Friesland Campina), Mieke Quintyn and Philippe Orban (Belgacom). Thanks also to Peter Quaghebeur (director-general, VMMa) and Jo Nachtergaele (marketing director, VMMa), Erwin Deckers (programme director, Q-music), Erik Van Vooren (manager, DM Institute) and Evarist Moonen (commercia l director, FC Bruges) for their equally inspirational conversations.

It is with pleasure that I thank Professor Rudy Moenaert, who has been a never-ending source of inspiration to me. His incisive and enquiring mind provided me with new energy when I was flagging and new insights when I needed them most. Thanks for the inspiration, Rudy and also for writing the foreword.

My first work experience was at the Vlerick Leuven Ghent Management School. After I made the step across to InSites Consulting, I continued to lecture at the school. This gave me the opportunity to test my ideas on many experienced and well respected marketeers. I will always be grateful to the school for this opportunity.

To Hilde Van Mechelen, Petere Saerens and Lieven Sercu (Lannoo Publishers), I would like to say thank you for believing in this project. I have always valued your advice and your ever-constructive criticism . I would also like to thank Pascal Van Hoorebeke for the graphical design of the book. Towards Paul Nola, thanks for the detailed pre-read of the English version of the book.

And last but not least, the biggest thank you of all goes to my wife Evi. During the past few years, she has constantly encouraged me to develop my story of the Conversation Manager. I wrote the book during her pregnancy, and I am still not sure which of us needed the most support: her or me! Thanks for everything Evi!

Foreword

I t is 27 September 2009, at roughly half-past five in the afternoon. Cadel Evans, a man born to lose, has just won the World Cycling Championship in Mendrisio. This comes as a surprise to both outsider s and insiders, as the comments of the Belgian television commentary team make clear. In passing, they also inform me that this is the first ever Australian world title on the road. At around six-fifteen I check Wikipedia to see how other countries score in this respect. Belgium still heads the list with 25 victories, followed by Italy with 19. Holland (our traditional cycling rival) has just 7! But my biggest aha-moment is when I see that Wikipedia has already been updated. Cadel Evans is already listed as the winner for 2009 and Australia already stands proudly in the list of championship winning countries. Who are these internauts who live in the intense lane of the information highway and who are offering the world a new lan? This is a battle that Encyclopedia Britannica can never win.

Always in motion is the future, declares Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back . This declaration (albeit somewhat ungrammatically) puts its finger on the problem facing todays modern managers, consultants and academics in the internet era. The future is unfolding faster than the past can be evaluated and appreciated. My favourite shopping site, Amazon.com , is packed with books which can never live up to peoples level of expectation. How far and for how long can we carry on limping behind the past? Where is the paradigm shift that will allow us to give meaning to this past and still extract maximum benefit from the future?

The Conversation Manager provides this breakthrough. The author , Steven Van Belleghem, has written a brilliant analysis of how the internet will alter your commercial strategy. He does this with great style and bravura, which gave me the comfortable feeling that I was the pupil in the presence of a great master! His activities at InSites Consulting a successful internet start-up which expertly combines science and market research have given him the opportunity to examine at close quarters the work of the digizens who cruise along the information highway. The Conversation Manager is a remarkable piece of work and one that you will enjoy reading. I hope you wont mind if I give you a brief summary of the books structure, using three legendary YouTube film clips as my guide.

Part One reminded me of the Did you know? clip, in which you can learn (amongst other things) that in just one (!) week the New York Times offers you more information than someone in the 18th century was able to process and absorb in their entire lifetime. The general tone of Did you know? is ominous and the Fat Boy Slim rap Right here, right now is prominent in the mix. Steven Van Belleghem goes for a different approach. His did-you-knows are never threatening. He explains tectonic shifts in the internet landscape, yet manages to convey them to his readers with humour and style. Simple words and easily recognizable examples illustrate and soften the impact of these seismic changes at the deeply human and emotional level of you and I. Whether he is talking about Oprah Winfrey, Dominos pizza or FC Bruges (his favourite football team), one conclusion remains inescapably in the foreground: authenticity is the trump card in the global brand village of the modern marketeer. The virtual world is not developing alongside everyday reality, but right at its very heart.

It is not possible to bypass let alone win the modern commercial chess game with the logic of the past. Forget eitheror. Think and and. The modern marketeer needs to sense emotionality and control rationality; value the individual and steer society in the direction he wants. In Part Two Steven Van Belleghem openly approaches the question of what we must do to achieve brand identification in the 21st century. He never lapses into cheap and easy theorizing, but is practical and concrete at all times. This part reminds me of the powerful Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. What would you do if you knew that this was your very last chance to act? Doing nothing is not an option. Laziness could be lethal! The solution is as simple as it is challenging, as obvious as it is powerful: marketeers must become Conversation Managers. The use of capital letters is not just a nice stylistic touch: it serves to underline the importance of these new players in your new commercial organization. The Conversation Manager is a strong personality who listens to and talks to consumers.