The Intention
Economy:
What Happens When
Customers Get Real Power
24 March 2008, Berkman Lunch Thing
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Problem Example: People vs.
Comcast
• 13 August 2007: Mona Shaw hammers
her local Comcast office. Literally.
• 8 January 2008: “Comcast CEO
Roberts Pitches CES on 100 Mbps
Cable and Project Infinity” by Rob
Beschizza in Wired.
• 25 January 2008: “ Comcast, Please
Stop Bugging Me For Money I Don't
Owe You” by Rob Beschizza in Wired.
The real problem:
Comcast can’t fix itself
alone. Nobody on the
sell-side can.
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Another Problem: Loyalty
Cards
Loyalty cards are the Green Stamps of our time.
Worse, they leverage something that’s broken about ecommerce…
— That you have to become a “member” and “sign in” to buy
anything.
They inconvenience the customer and cause friction at every
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Case in point: the Harvard
Coop
Nice place. Loved shopping there.
Until I got tired of paying +10% for not
belonging.
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Joining any loyalty program
is a pain in the butt.
I failed the first few times I tried filling it
out.
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Now I’m a member. Which
means I have to care about
this:
Why should I have
to fill all this junk
out?
… over and over, for
every
“relationship”?
Because they aren’t
my “relationshps.”
They’re my data in
somebody else’s 6
Another failure:
Donating money to WMBR.
What I like
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How? Where?
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Umm…
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So, how about…
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Okay, I give up.
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And another: WUMB
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Bring on the friction!
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Aye, we hardly knew ye.
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The problem in all these cases is
Customer Relationship
Management
It’s not really about relating.
It’s about marketing. It’s to you, not with you.
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CRM is a $12 Billion
business…
… that doesn’t work.
Except by its own metrics.
Which barely include you.
Which is why Mona obeyed Howard
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The problem is that most big business
still thinks the best customer is a captive
one.
That’s why they “acquire,” “manage,” “control” and
otherwise “own” creatures they call “consumers.”
And that’s why…
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A “free market” is still
“your choice of captor.”
Even though the Net is now in the middle of
everything.
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We have to prove that a free
customer is more valuable than
a captive one.
That’s what VRM is all about.
VRM is Vendor Relationship Management.
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VRM is how customers,
anywhere in the long tail…
…can create and manage real relationships with
vendors.
Or with any organization.
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VRM is the reciprocal of CRM.
VRM
CRM
It will provide ways for customers to drive
vendors...
And not just to be driven by them.
With VRM we can relate for real.
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With VRM, the individual is the
point of integration for his or her
own data.
… and the point of origination for what’s done
with it.
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We have an active
and growing community
— with hotbeds in Europe & North America
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VRM is an open source project.
There are already over hall a million open
source code bases out there to work with.
We’re using some of those, and making a few
more.
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Here is some
of what we want VRM to
do.
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Manage our own health care
data.
This is a tall order, and very long term.
But there are some great people (especially
around here) working on, for example, personal
health records (PHRs).
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Issue a “personal RFP”
to whole markets, on the fly.
For example, send a message saying you need a 200w 220>110 converter
in Amsterdam on a Sunday afternoon…
— without giving any more than the required information.
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Assert useful Terms of Service.
Instead of this jive:
You agree we aren't liable for annoying interruptions caused by you; or a third party, buildings, hills, network
congestion, rye whiskey falling sickness or unexpected acts of God or man, and will save harmless rotary
lyrfmstrdl detections of bargas overload prevention, or in the event of random siding management retrenchments,
or Elvis leaving the building. Unattended overseas submissions in saved mail hazard functions will be subject to
bad weather or sneeze funneling through contractor felch reform blister pack truncation, or for the duration of the
remaining unintended contractual subsequent lost or expired obligations, except in the state of Michigan at night.
We also save ourselves and close relatives harmless from anything we don't control; including clear weather and
oddball acts of random gods. You also agree we are not liable for missed garments, body parts, or voice mails,
even if you have saved them. Nothing we say or mumble here is trustworthy or true, or meant for any purpose
other than to feed the fears of our legal department, which has no other reason to live. Whether for reasons of
drugs, hormones, gas or mood, we may terminate this agreement with cheeful impunity, and there’s not a damn
thing you can do about it.
Accept.
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Create a new business model
for free media.
(one that isn’t advertising)
Free media include…
Non-commercial broadcasting
Blogs, podcasts
Music…
Anything that’s either free on purpose or too easy to
“steal.”
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Starting with public media.
The model is called PayChoice.
It will be based on the ability of individuals to…
pay as much as they want
for whatever they want
whenever they want
wherever they want
on their terms as well as those of sellers.
Here’s where we plan to see it first:
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VRM will inform CRM.
Listeners and viewers will bear their
end of the relationship burden with
stations.
Relationship can be enlarged to mean
far more, and include far more.
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Relating will have its own
symbol:
We call it the “r-button.”
It says,
“I want to pay…
what I want.” And/or,
“I want to relate…
on my terms…
and not just yours.”
“This is my code’s way
of letting your code know that.
Even if you’re not listening. Yet.”
Its how VRM meets CRM.
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The r-button
can represent different
states:
For example…
Intention to buy (and/or to relate).
Intention to sell, but also to relate on
your (the buyer’s) terms, as well
as your own.
Existing relationship — which can
be viewed and unpacked on
either side.
Among others. This is still wide
open.
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Here are a few ways it might
look:
(Note: These are old drafts.)
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Back to the title question:
What happens when customers get
real power?
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Customers will get their
own pricing guns.
They won’t be able to price everything.
But the seller won’t be the only one holding these
things.
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Customers and Vendors
will both get to wear
matching rings.
Or magnets.
Whatever we call them, “relationship” will be a
fact…
… rather than marketing jive.
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The Intention Economy
will get real.
It will be based on what customers actually
want.
Rather than the “attention economy” of
guessing what customers want.
… or “driving” customers to want stuff.
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The advertising bubble
will burst.
No, advertising won’t go away. We’ll always need
some.
It just won’t be the communications method of
first resort.
Or the only business model that comes to mind.40
Cluetrain will finally be right.
So let’s talk.
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