Yes you read it right. This is not a post about the future of marketing. This is a post about the ten unthinkable futures of marketing.

Unthinkable futures are probabilities we tend to dismiss without thinking, scenarios that seem too far-fetched to be true today, but may seem obvious in retrospect tomorrow.

Inspired by the unthinkable futures game between Kevin Kelly and Brian Eno from fifteen years back, here’s my own list of the ten unthinkable futures of marketing —

1. No products will have price tags anymore. People will pick up products from the mall, or order them online and have them delivered home, and pay only what they want to pay.

(Update: I was aware of the numerous examples of authors and musicians giving away their books and music for free, but I discovered two examples of restaurants giving away food for free, and allowing the patrons to decide what they want to pay for it.)

2. Since all products will have the same lowest possible price — zero — even the concept of competing on low price won’t exist anymore.

3. Similarly, the concept of using a high price as a signaling mechanism (for quality or exclusivity) won’t exist anymore.

4. Since there will be no price to signal product quality, people will (correctly) assume that all products have the same quality.

5. Since there will be no price to signal exclusivity, brand labels will no longer signal exclusivity either.

6. Free from the weight of product and price, brands will operate purely in the realm of ideas.

7. Each brand will be the embodiment of a narrowly defined idea that each person will relate to or not relate to.

8. People will organize themselves into close knit tribes around the brands they really relate to.

9. People will pay less or more for the products they pick up on the basis of their affinity with the brand’s tribe.

10. Therefore, brands will be like entertainers and their chief concern will be the management of their tribes, or fan bases.

What do you think? How unthinkable are these ten futures of marketing?

What about you? What are your own ten unthinkable futures of marketing?

Check out ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’, India’s first marketing book-as-a-blog. Subscribe to my full feed in a feed reader or by e-mail.

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In my previous post, I had compared the social technographics profiles for USA/ Europe with Japan/ Metro China to kick off my series on why the social web is not flat.

The Forrester Research Social Technographics Ladder classifies consumers into six overlapping levels based on their of participation in social media –

Basically, Creators create the user generated content, Critics and Collectors help disseminate it and Spectators consume it. Joiners are a special species, specific to social networking sites, who play all the other four roles in that context.

I ended the post by wishing that this data was also available for India, or at least Metro India –

However, given the low penetration of internet, even in Metro India, I suspect that the Creators will be in low single digits, Critics/ Collectors in high single digits, and Joiners/ Spectators in low double digits.

Well, I have spent a few hours in mashing together data from various sources to estimate the social technographics profile for Metro India and here’s how it looks –

- Metro India: I have defined Metro India as the top eight cities in India in terms of population (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune). The total population of Metro India is 52mn (as per World Gazette estimates).

- Active Internet Users in Metro India: IAMAI’s I-Cube 2007 report there are 46mn Internet users in India (with 70% or 32mn active users), out of which 38% or 17.5mn are in Metro India. Assuming a higher active internet user percentage of 80%, the number of active internet users in Metro India can be estimated at 14mn (80% of 17.5mn).

- Creators in Metro India: The number of blogs in India has been estimated between 0.5mn and 1.2mn (see JuxtConsult India Online 2006, Ankit Maheshwari of Instablogs in The Hindu, Amit Ranjan of Webyantra, Debashish Chakrabarty of Indibloggies in Asian Age), even though most sources agree that the number of active blogs in India is much less than 50000. Starting with this baseline, and factoring in users uploading self-created content on photo-sharing and video sharing sites, we can estimate the number of Creators in Metro India at a maximum of 0.5mn.

- Critics in Metro India: India’s largest product review site Mouthshut claims to have 2.3mn registered users out of which 50% or 1.2mn are in Metro India (link). Starting with this baseline, we can estimate the number of Critics in Metro India at a maximum of 5mn.

- Collecters in Metro India: India’s largest social voting site site IndianPad has less than 50000 users. Starting with this baseline, we can estimate the number of Collectors in Metro India at a maximum of 0.5mn.

- Joiners in Metro India: As per JuxtConsult’s India Online 2008 report, 50% of all internet users in India use social networking sites, putting the size of the user base for social networking sites in India at 16mn (I had recently estimated it at 10mn). Assuming a higher social networking usage percentage of 60%, the number of Joiners in Metro India can be estimated at 8.4mn (60% of 14mn).

- Spectators in Metro India: As per JuxtConsult’s India Online 2006 survey, 85% of all Indian internet users regularly read blogs. Assuming that 85% of all Internet users in Metro India engage with social media in some form, the number of Spectators in Metro India can be estimated at 11.9mn. This is also intuitive because at least some internet users who are not on social networking sites must still engage with social media in some form.

- Inactives in Metro India: Once we have estimated that out of 14mn people in Metro India, 11.9mn are Spectators, the number of Inactives in Metro India can be safely estimated at 2.1mn.

To provide a context on how small these numbers are, here’s the social technographics profile for Metro China from my previous post –

It is evident even from a cursory look at the two charts that social media usage in Metro India and Metro China is driven by very different consumer behavior. In Metro China, Creators, Critics and Joiners all play an important role, whereas in India, Joiners are the predominant drivers of social media usage.

In my upcoming posts in the series, I’ll try to understand the reasons for such a difference between social media usage in India and China. Stay tuned.

Check out ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’, India’s first marketing book-as-a-blog. Subscribe to my full feed in a feed reader or by e-mail.

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Forrester Research analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff have played an important role in increasing our understanding of the social media space over the last year, both through their book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (website) and their Social Technographics Study.

The Forrester Research Social Technographics Study classifies consumers into a ladder with six overlapping levels based on their of participation in social media. The six levels in the Social Technographics Ladder are –

1. Creators, who publish blogs, maintain websites, or upload self-created photos, podcasts or videos on social sites (like Flickr or YouTube).

2. Critics, who post ratings and reviews of products and services on user review sites (like Amazon), comment on someone else’s blogs or contribute to online forums or wikis (like Wikipedia).

3. Collectors, who create metadata that’s shared with the entire community, by aggregating RSS feeds in a feed reader (like Bloglines), by saving or tagging URLs on a social bookmarking service (like del.cio.us), or by voting for websites on a social voting site (like Digg).

4. Joiners, who visit and maintain profiles on social networking sites (like MySpace or Facebook).

5. Spectators, who read blogs, online forums and customer ratings/ reviews, listen to podcasts and watch peer-generated video.

6. Inactives, who do not participate at all in social media activities.

Basically, Creators create the user generated content, Critics and Collectors help disseminate it and Spectators consume it. Joiners are a special species, specific to social networking sites, who play all the other four roles in that context.

The core idea is that, instead of starting from a list of social media tools, companies should start with their target audience, and develop their social media strategy based on the social technographics profile of their audience.

Now Forrester has made their finding available in a nifty free Social Technographics Profile Tool. The data is based on Forrester Research Technographics surveys conducted with more than 40,000 respondents in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific in Q1/ Q2 2007. It’s a useful tool that allows you to split the data by age, gender and geography, and I’m sure that I’ll return to it frequently over the next few months.

In this post, however, I will focus on the geographical split and compare the social technographics profiles for USA/ Europe with Japan/ Metro China to kick off my series on how the social web is not flat.

First, only one fourth of the consumers in Japan/ Metro China are Inactives, compared to more than half the consumers in USA/ Europe. If Forrester’s claim that about three-fourth of all consumers in Japan/ Metro China engage with social media in some form or the other is indeed true, then the social media opportunity in Asia Pacific is much bigger than I expected it to be.

Second, and even more importantly, more than one third of the consumers in Metro China are Creators, compared to about one fifth of the consumers in Japan and USA and one tenth of the consumers in Europe. If you add to it the high percentage of Critics and Collectors in Metro China, it’s obvious that the social media scene in Metro China is much more vibrant than Japan or USA, and especially Europe.

Third, even in the specific context of social networking sites, almost one third of the consumers in Metro China are Joiners, compared to almost one fourth in Japan and USA and one eighth in Europe, pointing to a huge potential for social networking sites in the Asia Pacific.

I must point out here that the data has some limitations. The sample sizes for Japan and Metro China are limited, so that splits by age and gender are not possible, but they should be realistic at overall levels. Then, to compare Metro China to Europe isn’t really fair, as we are comparing a few cities to a continent. Finally, the six levels are overlapping and it will be interesting to look at the overlaps between the different levels in each geography to see, for instance, how many consumers in Metro China are either Creators or Critics or Collectors. Still, given China’s huge population, even Metro China must add up to a sizable segment.

Finally, I wish that this data was also available for India, or at least Metro India. However, given the low penetration of internet, even in Metro India, I suspect that the Creators will be in low single digits, Critics/ Collectors in high single digits, and Joiners/ Spectators in low double digits. What do you think?

Check out ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’, India’s first marketing book-as-a-blog. Subscribe to my full feed in a feed reader or by e-mail.

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It has been fashionable for a while now to describe the world as ‘globalized’. Ever since Thomas Friedman’s ode to globalization, ‘The World is Flat’, became a runaway bestseller in 2005, it has also become fashionable to describe the world as ‘flat’. Indians, in particular, have a special fondness for Friedman’s book because Friedman is enamored with the Indian IT industry and the title was derived from a statement by Nandan Nilekani, the former CEO of Infosys.

While the ‘world is flat’ metaphor has been much abused over the last three years, even Friedman’s original argument (that historical, regional and geographical divisions have become irrelevant in a global marketplace where all companies and countries have a level playing field) is quite exaggerated.

In a series of posts written over the next few weeks, I’ll establish that the world is not truly globalized, but ’semi-globalized’ (as Pankaj Ghemawat describes it in ‘Redefining Global Strategy’) or ‘rough-correlated’ (a term used by Eric Beinhocker in ‘The Origin of Wealth’).

In fact, not only will I establish that the world is not flat, I’ll also prove that the internet in general and the social web in particular is not flat either. This is an important argument because Friedman’s ‘the world is flat’ theses is based on the premise that information technology in general and the internet in particular has flattened the world.

Finally, I’ll establish that it’s a good thing that the social web (and the world) is not entirely flat, because it allows entrepreneurs to exploit opportunities, for instance, to create a uniquely Indian social network or build a social media outsourcing business.

Watch out for more posts in this series under a new category called ‘Flat or Not’.

Check out ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’, India’s first marketing book-as-a-blog. Subscribe to my full feed in a feed reader or by e-mail.

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The Idea

The basic idea is simple: we form a network of five to ten influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from other Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs.

The People

The present members in our network are (in alphabetical order):-

- Gaurav Mishra, that is, yours truly, is a marketer and a social media enthusiast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Gautam Ghosh is an HR professional and a veteran business blogger (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Kiruba Shankar is India’s original A-list blogger and podcaster and a regular speaker at technology conferences (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Palin Ningthoujam is a public relations professional and the founder of India PR Blog (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Rajesh Lalwani is the founder of social media agency Blogworks (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Ranjan Varma is the writer of personal finance online weekly Personal Finance 2.01 (e-Book, Blog, Facebook and Twitter).

- VeerChand Bothra is the organizer of Mumbai Mobile Mondays and head of business development at MyToday (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

The Process

Over the week, we share posts between each other, and select a set of 3-5 posts to highlight. The posts can include all business-related topics including marketing, advertising, public relations, human resource management, finance, and entrepreneurship. The idea is to not link to each others’ posts, unless one of us has written a real gem.

Every Monday, all of us link to the same set of posts, with our own unique perspectives on them. By linking to the same posts together, we maximize the benefit we pass on to the linked blogs, both in terms of traffic and Google juice. By providing our multiple unique perspective on the posts, we hope to kick off conversations around these posts in the Indian business blogging community.

The Best of Indian Business Blogs: Weekly Digest 4

- Sanjay Anandram and Vijay Anand explain why startups should choose their investors/ board members carefully.

My top-of-the-mind views: Most entrepreneurs spend a lot of time getting their product and their team right, but few spend as much time getting their investors and board members right. When I set up my own startup, I’ll do well to follow Sanjay’s and Vijay’s advice and look for investors who’ll not only invest in the business but also help me build it.

- Vijay Anand and Snigdha Sengupta point out that all is not well with the Indian version of BarCamps.

My top-of-the-mind views: Most of my friends who attended BarCamp Mumbai 3 were disappointed by it. Vijay and Snigdha wonder if we have interpreted the concept of unconference wrongly and appeal for a more conversational, startup-focused BarCamp. Well, I personally like the idea of Startup Weekends. If you are in Mumbai, you may get an invite to one soon.

- Jinal Shah wants to make sense of the chaos of the social web.

My top-of-the-mind views: Many practitioners are beginning to see social media conversations as a valuable, but under-utilized, opportunity for ‘free’ qualitative research to provide insights that can be used to develop both products and messages. The tools aren’t quite in place yet, but with natural language and machine learning algorithms becoming increasingly intelligent, this may become a big business opportunity soon. I personally see another model evolving simultaneously — the wisdom of the crowds aggregated via social media outsourcing.

- The Sans Serif blog looks forward to the upcoming Hindu vs ToI battle in Chennai

My top-of-the-mind views: The Jains have proven time and again that nobody else gets the newspaper business like they do. With the launch of The Times of India in Chennai, The Hindu will learn that it has already lost the battle it is preparing to fight.

- Harish B analyzes the launch of Tata Sumo Grande

My top-of-the-mind views: Harish writes an interesting, if partial, analysis of the evolution of Tata Sumo as a brand and the launch of the new Sumo Grande. I’m privy to the inside story on the brand, and look forward to an interesting conversation on the topic with Harish if and when we meet up.

Your Turn Now

We have done our part by starting the conversation. Now, it’s your turn to carry on the conversation by commenting on these posts, linking to these posts in your own blogs, giving us feedback on our idea and execution, or suggesting more posts for our next week’s digest.

Also see: Gaurav Mishra Week 1, Rajesh Lalwani Week 1, Ranjan Varma Week 1, Gaurav Mishra Week 2, Palin Ningthoujam Week 2, Ranjan Varma Week 2, Gaurav Mishra Week 3, Rajesh Lalwani Week 3, Ranjan Varma Week 3, Gautam Ghosh Week 3, Gautam Ghosh Week 4, Rajesh Lalwani Week 4.

Check out ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’, India’s first marketing book-as-a-blog. Subscribe to my full feed in a feed reader or by e-mail.

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The Idea

The basic idea is simple: we form a network of five to ten influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from other Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs.

The People

The present members in our network are (in alphabetical order):-

- Gaurav Mishra, that is, yours truly, is a marketer and a social media enthusiast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Gautam Ghosh is an HR professional and a veteran business blogger (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Kiruba Shankar is India’s original A-list blogger and podcaster and a regular speaker at technology conferences (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Palin Ningthoujam is a public relations professional and the founder of India PR Blog (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Rajesh Lalwani is the founder of social media agency Blogworks (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Ranjan Varma is the writer of personal finance online weekly Personal Finance 2.01 (e-Book, Blog, Facebook and Twitter).

- VeerChand Bothra is the organizer of Mumbai Mobile Mondays and head of business development at MyToday (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

The Process

Over the week, we share posts between each other, and select a set of 3-5 posts to highlight. The posts can include all business-related topics including marketing, advertising, public relations, human resource management, finance, and entrepreneurship. The idea is to not link to each others’ posts, unless one of us has written a real gem.

Every Monday, all of us link to the same set of posts, with our own unique perspectives on them. By linking to the same posts together, we maximize the benefit we pass on to the linked blogs, both in terms of traffic and Google juice. By providing our multiple unique perspective on the posts, we hope to kick off conversations around these posts in the Indian business blogging community.

The Best of Indian Business Blogs: Weekly Digest 3

- Rajesh Lalwani believes that companies offering pro-biotic products in India are under-utilizing Internet in general, and social media in particular

My top-of-the-mind views: The health and wellness category is perhaps the one in which Internet in general, and social media in particular, can play a make-or-break role. The category has unique characteristics that make it a perfect fit for social media: it is an extremely high involvement category, patronized by an upwardly mobile (Internet)-savvy consumer base, and marked by frequent purchases of low ticket size products. Rajesh does a great job of identifying the gaps in how companies offering pro-biotic products are approaching the Indian market, and I see some of these gaps being filled very quickly.

- Sudhakar Ram, Founder and CMD of Mastek Ltd, looks forward to Mastek Ltd, looks forward to the third wave of Indian outsourcing

My top-of-the-mind views: Most industry insiders agree that it will be difficult to sustain the growth rates of 40-50% in the IT/ ITES sector if it stays rooted in the labor arbitrage mode. Sudhakar urges Indian IT companies to start making substantial investments in building intellectual property and creating solutions that have strategic impact and top management visibility within client organizations. Many Indian IT companies have adopted this approach of late, but with limited success. It will be interesting to see how many Indian IT/ ITES companies are able to move beyond labor arbitrage and transition to the ‘third wave’.

- Vijay Anand, founder of Proto.in, says that Indian entrepreneurs need to be more aware of their environment.

My top-of-the-mind views: Vijay gives a lot of invaluable advice in his post, including making your offering environment-proof, factoring in the negative use cases, thinking change-the-world big, and remembering that the world is a balance of chaos and equilibrium.

- Kamla Bhatt believes that a pure-play corporate blogging approach may not be successful in India

My top-of-the-mind views: Kamla believes that Indian corporates are more likely to embrace social networks than corporate blogs. I think that corporate blogs and corporate presence on social networks serve objectives that sometimes overlap but often don’t. Therefore, corporates in India will do well to use both, based on the context, the community and the nature of the conversation. Expect a longer post on this topic sometime soon.

- Atanu Dey dissects the food-versus-fuel dot-corn debate

My top-of-the-mind views: The mandated increase in the use of corn-derived ethanol as fuel in the US has led to much chest-thumping, with both camps strongly supporting their stands. Atanu Dey separates out the various issues involved in the debate in his trademark erudite style.

Your Turn Now

We have done our part by starting the conversation. Now, it’s your turn to carry on the conversation by commenting on these posts, linking to these posts in your own blogs, giving us feedback on our idea and execution, or suggesting more posts for our next week’s digest.

Also see: Gaurav Mishra Week 1, Rajesh Lalwani Week 1, Ranjan Varma Week 1, Gaurav Mishra Week 2, Palin Ningthoujam Week 2, Ranjan Varma Week 2, Rajesh Lalwani Week 3, Ranjan Varma Week 3.

Check out ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’, India’s first marketing book-as-a-blog. Subscribe to my full feed in a feed reader or by e-mail.

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I had earlier promised you that I’ll post an interview with Rohit Bhargava, author of the new marketing book ‘Personality Not Included’.

The interview is part of Rohit’s innovative blogger interview program to promote the book –

If you send me five questions that you want to know about the book or personality, I’ll write you a response on Friday that you can publish on your blog. I will link to all the posted interviews on Friday.

On Monday, I’ll be running a competition on my blog to let readers vote on the Best Interview. The winner will get a signed copy of my book and a gift certificate for $100 from Amazon.

Rohit has spent the last two days doing 57 virtual blogger interviews; that’s 285 questions!

I’m in Rohit’s shortlist of twelve best interviews; now I need your help in the voting.

Since I’m not allowed to buy books in my year of being off consumption, the $100 Amazon vouchers will be invaluable for me.

So, if you loved my interview, please vote for me both here and here. Both your votes count, so do vote at both places.

Here are my five questions to Rohit and his insightful answers to them –

Gaurav: I agree that having a personality is a valuable asset for a brand. However, building and staying true to the personality is also a lot of hard work. The question is: given that personality creates its own unique demands on the brand, can brands handle having a personality?

Rohit: That’s a really interesting question… and to answer it, I’d like to suggest a small tweak. What if you replaced the word personality with the word brand in your question? I think the challenge you are describing is one that will be very familiar to companies who have struggled to build a brand as well. What it will likely come down to is the same type of focus it takes to build a strong brand. You do need to be consistent and get the right team members on board - so there is definitely work involved. The benefits, though, are equivalent to those of building a strong brand, so I think it is worth it.

Gaurav: I agree that having a personality can inspire your customers to love your brand, instead of only liking it. However, having a personality can also incite your customer to hate your brand instead of only being indifferent to it. The question is: given that personality polarizes people, should brands risk having a personality and losing paying customers?

Rohit: Another really good question (especially because I’ve now done more than 50 of these interviews and haven’t gotten this question yet!). To answer it, I think it would help to define what I mean by personality. The definition I use in the book is that personality is the unique, authentic and talkable soul of your brand that people can get passionate about. I’m not talking about having a personality that goes to extremes unless that fits the persona of your brand. And if it does (think Hummer), then you are probably already used to people that hate you and people that love you. The point is, personality is a reflection of what your brand should stand for. And in terms of your question, if your personality does alienate indifferent customers… I would argue that they were never really “paying customers” to begin with.

Gaurav: All brands are not equal. Many brands find themselves stuck in commodity hell, while a select few become interpretors of meaning (please see my post on the marketing chain of being). The question is: given that different brands are at different levels in the marketing chain of being, should all brands even attempt to create a personality?

Rohit: I think when you get to read the book, you will love the opening for Chapter 4 (all about storytelling) because I open with an example that talks exactly about this situation. The short story is, personality can make a difference even when you are stuck in “commodity hell” as you nicely put it. The example from the book is Dole and their Farm Code program and how they manage to put a personality on a commodity product like a banana. Essentially, personality can offer the key for a brand to move from one rung of the chain you describe to another. Great post by the way.

Gaurav: In the social media era, a brand’s personality is best realized through the personalities of the people (typically brand managers and community managers) who represent the brand. However, when the person who represents the brand (in a particular community) moves on, the brand risks losing its personality (in the context of that particular community). The question is: given that a brand’s personality is realized through people who will eventually move on, how does the brand stay bigger than the people who represent it?

Rohit: This is an important question that many brands will be struggling with as social media tools become more and more prominent. I shared a similar response for a previous interview, but essentially, there are two models for dealing with this situation and they are defined by two high profile examples.

1. Scoble - He was the star blogger at Microsoft, then PodTech, and now FastCompany. In each situation, he took his personal equity with him and the brands he worked for previously were left behind.

2. Randy - This is the opposite situation which Boeing faced when Randy Baseler, the popular CMO and blogger at Randy’s Journal decided to retire. Boeing quietly architected a handover of the blog to the new CMO (who also happened to be named Randy). Good fortune of them both having the same name aside, it was a brilliant example in how to keep the value of an asset like a blog even though the person behind it may move on. I wrote about it on my blog here.

Gaurav: Most of us accept that as people grow old and gather experiences, they will change and their personality will evolve. However, brand personalities tend to be more sticky. The question is: given that the context in which a brand operates changes over time, should a brand’s personality change too?

Rohit: Definitely, there is very little about business that can stay the same for years and years without evolving. This doesn’t mean that brands should be schizophrenic about what they stand for, but they do need to be flexible and ready to make changes to evolve.

Thank you, Rohit, for your insightful answers.

By the way, here’s the list of all the fifty seven interviews with the shortlisted ones highlighted:-

1. Ryan Karpeles | Interview Link
2. Darayush Mistry | Interview Link
3. Michelle Greer | Interview Link
4. Dan Schawbel | Interview Link
5. Saul Colt | Interview Link
6. Katia Adams | Interview Link
7. Jinal Shah | Interview Link
8. Anastasia Goodstein | Interview Link
9. Scott Monty | Interview Link (shortlisted)
10. Todd Andrlik | Interview Link (shortlisted)
11. Kevin Dugan | Interview Link
12. Valerie Conyngham | Interview Link
13. Helen Hoefele | Interview Link
14. Denise Wakeman | Interview Link
15. Tushar Panchal | Interview Link
16. Jesse Thomas | Interview Link
17. Tanya Reynolds | Interview Link
18. Ryan Moede | Interview Link
19. Bruce Reyes-Chow | Interview Link (shortlisted)
20. Katarzyna Dziedzic | Interview Link
21. Meg Taylor | Interview Link
22. Klaus Holzapfel | Interview Link
23. Xander Becket | Interview Link
24. Paul Peters | Interview Link
25. David J. Neff | Interview Link
26. Ryan Jones | Interview Link
27. Jonny Goldstein | Interview Link (shortlisted)
28. Ross Hill | Interview Link
29. Shashi Bellamkonda | Interview Link
30. Lisa Newton | Interview Link
31. Matt Dickman | Interview Link
32. David Berkowitz | Interview Link (shortlisted)
33. Nedra Kline Weinreich | Interview Link
34. Jeanne May | Interview Link
35. Krishna De | Interview Link (shortlisted)
36. Matt Lee | Interview Link
37. Andrea Hill | Interview Link
38. Jordan Viator | Interview Link
39. Todd Mintz | Interview Link
40. Connie Bensen | Interview Link (shortlisted)
41. Tom Obrien | Interview Link
42. Vandana Ahuja | Interview Link
43. Robert Gilbreath | Interview Link
44. Ronna Porter | Interview Link (shortlisted)
45. Becky Cortino | Interview Link
46. Ben Ullman | Interview Link
47. Todd Defren | Interview Link
48. Josef Katz | Interview Link
49. Zachary J. Braiker | Interview Link (shortlisted)
50. Michelle Riggen-Ransom | Interview Link
51. Patricia Mayo | Interview Link
52. Angelo Fernando | Interview Link
53. Gaurav Mishra | Interview Link (shortlisted)
54. Paul Sweeney | Interview Link
55. Linda Sherman | Interview Link (shortlisted)
56. John Trosko | Interview Link
57. Mystery Blogger | Interview Link

Do remember to vote for me both here and here.

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I just finished reading the introduction (download PDF here) of Rohit Bhargava’s new book ‘Personality Not Included’ and it totally rocks!

The basic premise of Rohit’s book is that personality is the key element defining what a brand stands for and the story it tells to its customers.

Personality is the unique, authentic, and talkable soul of your brand that people can get passionate about.

…

Personality is not just about what you stand for, but how you choose to communicate it. It is also the way to reconnect your customers, partners, employees, and influencers to the soul of your brand in the new social media era.

…

Personality is the macro trend. The three hottest topics in business today are how to do more with social media, using word-of-mouth marketing, and interacting more authentically with customers. Personality is the theme that incorporates all of these topics.

Rohit is a marketing practitioner and the book is a complete package of insights that are brought alive by hundred plus case studies and tools that will help you to put the theory to test through action.

Rohit is also running an innovative blogger interview program to promote the book –

If you send me five questions that you want to know about the book or personality, I’ll write you a response on Friday that you can publish on your blog. I will link to all the posted interviews on Friday.

On Monday, I’ll be running a competition on my blog to let readers vote on the Best Interview. The winner will get a signed copy of my book and a gift certificate for $100 from Amazon.

Here are the five questions I have asked Rohit –

1) I agree that having a personality is a valuable asset for a brand. However, building and staying true to the personality is also a lot of hard work. The question is: given that personality creates its own unique demands on the brand, can brands handle having a personality?

2) I agree that having a personality can inspire your customers to love your brand, instead of only liking it. However, having a personality can also incite your customer to hate your brand instead of only being indifferent to it. The question is: given that personality polarizes people, should brands risk having a personality and losing paying customers?

3) All brands are not equal. Many brands find themselves stuck in commodity hell, while a select few become interpretors of meaning (please see my post on the marketing chain of being). The question is: given that different brands are at different levels in the marketing chain of being, should all brands even attempt to create a personality?

4) In the social media era, a brand’s personality is best realized through the personalities of the people (typically brand managers and community managers) who represent the brand. However, when the person who represents the brand (in a particular community) moves on, the brand risks losing its personality (in the context of that particular community). The question is: given that a brand’s personality is realized through people who will eventually move on, how does the brand stay bigger than the people who represent it?

5) Most of us accept that as people grow old and gather experiences, they will change and their personality will evolve. However, brand personalities tend to be more sticky. The question is: given that the context in which a brand operates changes over time, should a brand’s personality change too?

I’ll post Rohit’s answers to my five questions later today I have posted Rohit’s answers to my five questions. Rohit has some great insights to share, so do have a look.

In the mean time, do read the introduction (download PDF here) of ‘Personality Not Included’.

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Why would a twenty-something, single, eligible, IIM-educated, upwardly mobile marketer on the corporate fast-track in India’s business capital decide to go ‘off consumption’ for a year?

Will a year off consumption (no eating out, no going out for movies or music or plays, no television or newspapers, no shopping except for necessities) leave him ill-equipped to handle life and work in Mumbai?

Or, will it leave him with invaluable insights into what drives us to consume, or not, into the nature of consumption, into human nature itself?

‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ is a blog in which I document my year off consumption. It is also a book-in-progress, in search of a publisher with a multi-million dollar advance.

Do spend an hour reading it, do subscribe to it, and don’t forget to tell me that you absolutely adore it.

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