The Theories Behind Connectivity - On Production & Products

On production and products...

You may know your product better than anyone. But what you probably don't know is what that product means to everyone.

Perception is key, and ever-changing.

Production is the art of understanding your audience.

Producing content is about aggregating ideas and reshaping them perspective and context.

Producing great content is about the experience you associate with that product, and one that you can share in perpetuity. 

33% of online Americans sat they engage in product research to help them make a purchase decision. (Insight Report from MarketTools, September 2008). Forrester estimates that almost $400 billion of store sales - or 16% of total retail sales - are directly influenced by the Web as consumers research products online and purchase them offline. This will grow at a 17% CAGR over the next five years, resulting in more than $1 trillion of store sales by 2012. Affluent visitors (with annual incomes of more than $75K) are most likely to research products online before buying (43%). (Insight Report)

The Theories Behind Connectivity - Technology & Production

In backing up a previous post on The Theory of Connectivity, we thought it might be time to look into some of the development components of why people connect with brands, particularly as these conversations are conducted through select media channels.

On technology...

You can't be everything to everyone. But you can be everywhere at all times. Well, at least in theory.

You can mash up tools, but you're really mashing up people, as well as the ideas they represent.

Remember that people relate to people, not pixels.

Who do you think you're having a conversation with?

On average, 3.5 billion WOM (Word of Mouth) conversations occur daily in the U.S. Offline WOM accounts for 92% of these (75% face-to-face; 17% by phone); email, IM/text messaging and chatrooms/blogs account for a combined 7% (Keller Fay Group, June 2008)

On production...

Everything is "user generated", including the ideas behind your TV spot or print ad. Where do you think you got the idea in the first place?

The question remains as to whether or not you recognize that collaboration. "Traditional" and "non-traditional" are just descriptors to delineate actions, not experiences.

Your experience is your own and you can share it in anyway and with anyone you'd like.

Approximately 60% of Americans use social media, and an overwhelming majority of these (93%) say companies should have a social media presence, while 85% of social media users believe these companies should not only be present but should interact with consumers using these same channels. Among social media users, 59% interact with companies on social media websites and one in four interacts more than once per week. Some 56% of social media users feel both a stronger connection with and are better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment. (Cone, September 2008)