Is it good to be naked?

It depends on how you look - - Toyota is probably looking in the mirror at this very moment. I had the opportunity to hear Professor Mohan Sawhney, the McCormick Tribune Professor of Technology at Northwestern University, speak tonight at the Kellogg Alumni Club of Dallas/Fort Worth speaker series. The title of his lecture was "Marketing in a Digitally Connected World." Professor Sawheny was a delight to listen to - - several of this thoughts are provided below:

• Marketing in the digital age is about customer empowerment, customer networking, and customer interactivity.
• Several major implications - - (1) Transparency - - reputation travels faster and farther. Both in terms of good and bad. Transparency can build customer trust and confidence. (2) Openness - - Answer questions. Timely and completely - - Toyota is an example of how not to view the world of digital openness. (3) Honesty - - the networked world is about honesty. If you claim you can do X - - and you can't do X - - someone is going to show the world on YouTube you can't do X.
• In the digital networked world you need to do what you say and say what you do.
• Digital marketing is marketing as conversation - - developing online relationships with customers. It is gardening. It is connecting and collaborating. It is engagement and the experience.
• Marketing is shifting from control to collaboration. Where collaboration embodies marketing, ideation, design, and support. It is marketing as a sensing mechanism - - opening minds to customer inputs. The shift is from reach to depth.
• Branding - - the roles that brands can play in the lives of customers includes Service Provider, Problem Solver, Community Sponsor, Connection Maker, Cause Supporter, and Creativity Curator.
• Think - - "How can we help versus what can we sell."
• Digital marketing requires experimentation, creativity, openness, teamwork, accountability, and risk taking.
• Think digital marketing as "Many to Many."
• Experimentation as risk taking - - the goal should be to reduce the cost of failure not to reduce the probability of failure.
• Go native - - Blogs, Facebook, YouTube - - the whole thing.
• We should all have a "Personal Learning Agenda" where attitude dominates age.