I do get board when sales people hunt me down in shops and never listen to me as a consumer. So last time I got the question “May I help you?” my answer was:
No! I only walk in to you store to help you! So you know what costumer wants to find in your shop! If you learn and have a good attitude I will tell more costumers how they can help YOU!
Therefore as a consumer I ask:
May I help you?

 Some fans to companies are doing fans-tattoos, fans-sites and fans-blogs. Others are producing new fans (read kids) and name their son Google-Kai. The best thing with the name is that they never need to search for there kid…

Around great brands is fans now building their tribes. How own there passion they cheer? Is it the company ore there fans?

When consumers have a story, good ore bad to tell they never ever more need to stop spreading it around. They can do so forever now when gravestone becomes with a flat screen monitor that plays a video of the person’s life and their consumer story forever.
It sounds creasy but maybe your next blog comment be linked to your future high-tech gravestone and it could online with Internet forever.
I know that you will live forever, but what would be your last blog to visit?

The big company didn’t listen to an unhappy costumer in China. He was creative and made an event, first he beat up his Mercedes-Benz then he pull it around with a donkey. The story got really big in media with covering photos and did cost the brand a lot.
If the company was ONE with this creative consumer he could pull Mercedes-Benz brand around in Asia – and build a storytelling story that would sell cars. Instead their brand did get associated with a donkey.
The common sense of the story: ONE costumer can cost a lot, especially if he is creative and now a donkey.

Case source: Swedish book “Att göra affärer i dagens Kina.”

Billions are invested to into “sky cars” project in many places. It is a smart idea to have transportation in the sky. But why does the design look like computer graphic?

Open source should be open space and include the nature in design.
Here is an idea to ad nature in design: Why not do the flying cars that now are becoming a reality as a flying egg? So the passenger can be born again every time they walk out of the “egg-car”?
Could the central stations could be the nest where we al meet?
Is this product give consumers a mental dimension?
Would a city with a skyline of “egg-cars” attract media and tourism?

One-to-one creates distance in the form of “us and them”, separated by a mental wall. You can see development from mass communication (figure 1) where the same message is broadcast to everyone. The next step takes us closer to the individual’s needs (one-to-one) where every relationship is more unique (figure 2). The next mental step is to become one with the market and the customer (figure 3). ONE goes deeper than the communication, the diffrens shows in product developed with the consumers, and how they take part in corporate culture and the way business are building bottom-line etc.

See and listen to a party in North Korea that was both beautiful and scary at the same time.

Two businesses that have succeeded in creating good local distribution are insurance and cable TV. They have managed to sell their services directly to employers and landlords. A slight rent increase pays for the extra channels. Why couldn’t the same sort of increase pay for stocking the laundry room with detergent? So why not offer milk and Coca-Cola on tap in every apartment?

Big companies like FedEx spend millions to get new customers, but when they get them, often the fun stops. Unfortunately this multi billion company didn’t appreciate Jose Avila’s discovery. He used FedEx so frequently that he had about 300 of their boxes lying around. He put two and two together: I have boxes and need furniture so why not make furniture of FedEx boxes? Great idea, and the word spread on the Internet and soon it was a success. He actually invented a way for FedEx to make consumers take part in there environmental responsibility. Sadly FedEx did not like it, so their lawyers hunt him to make him shut down his site, www.fedexfurniture.com. But Jose got help from students at the Stanford Law School Center (this helped the story to grow like a modern version of David and Goliath). Instead of fighting the consumer power, FedEx could work with Jose and move their company forward by being ONE with their consumers. If they did it right they could get loads of positive PR.

Instead FedEx hunted Jose and got loads of negative PR when the story appeared in Wired, CBS, CNN, NBC and many talk shows. Today as a result of bad behavior they suffer from millions of anti-brand stories floating around on the Internet. This attitude from big companies costs millions of brand image dollars and doesn’t increase sales.

To see the big picture is to be a part of the picture,
not only deliver the package from A to B.

To get consumer power to work with FedEx rather than against it, their developers could easily find designers like Sergej Gerasimenko who have been working with cardboard furniture for more than 15 years. Together with Jose and Sergej, FedEx could develop a package that consumers could make FedEx furniture with, and become ONE with the brand. This could be a trend and a movement for other consumers to take part in. For employees at FedEx, it should be an honor to work in a company that is a part of people’s lives, not only delivering package from A to B. It would also inspire their corporate culture to adapt and learn from customers and make them more flexible. For example, if FedEx moved their business into household goods removals (a global, multi-million dollar business) it would be easy: FedEx is already in their consumers’ homes, with furniture made of FedEx (a new dimension of “living your brand”).

Instead, FedEx has to pay millions of dollars to do annoying product placements in movies like Runaway Bride with Julia Roberts. They do product placements to APPEAR as though they are a part of their consumers’ lives. After movies like The Corporation and Super Size Me they could, with their famous David & Goliath story, end up with an “anti-FedEx-movie” (the kind of product placement that would definitely not build their brand). Such a film would be a success with a director like Michael Moore and a star like Jose Avila playing himself. Hollywood only needs to click on this link to see that there is a market for this film (you can imagine how box office sales would do).

Today Jose and other fans have moved out from the FedEx brand (or as some say, ExFed). Sadly José’s site www.fedexfurniture.com isn’t up anymore. We hope that the company who replaced FedEx for Jose, UPS, can work as ONE with this passionate customer. Maybe he and Sergej could design furniture for UPS, and start a site like www.upsfurniture.com with UPS.
Does your company have fans? Are you a fan? Passion is energy – how do you think that energy can inspire the corporate culture of companies? Can consumers increase the bottom line? Is there any bottom line without consumers?

In the advertising industry consumers start to change things around. They are now by them self-creating the best advertising. In Adrants you can read “Advertising highjacked by consumers.” Even Ad Age reports on the revolution.
How would you like to take part in the revolution?