Conversational Capital: How to Create Stuff People Love to Talk About

Citation

Goldsmith, R.E. (2009), "Conversational Capital: How to Create Stuff People Love to Talk About", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 26 No. 5, pp. 370-371. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760910976646

Conversational Capital joins a spate of books published in the past few years that address the general topic of social communication for marketing purposes. As such, it reflects many ideas current in today's business environment. These include the demise (at least the woes) of traditional mass marketing and mass advertising, the rise of the new media, consumer use of brands to construct social identity, and especially the growing influence of consumer co‐production and consumer social communication. The latter is the particular focus of Conversational Capital. In it, the authors argue that marketing success depends on having consumers spread positive word‐of‐mouth (WOM) about brands. Although this is not a new insight, the book goes further by claiming that it holds the key to promoting this positive WOM.

In his famous and influential description of influential consumers, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000) called upon marketers and advertisers to make their messages “sticky” in order to enhance their memorability, so that opinion leaders would say good things about them. Although this recommendation cannot be faulted, it seems like a tautology; and Gladwell was less than explicit regarding how message creators should go about adding “stickiness” to their creations. Reflecting the general theme of the transfer of power from marketers to consumers, Michael Solomon's (2003) Conquering Consumerspace: Marketing Strategies for a Branded World, described many ways in which consumers use products and especially brands to define their self‐images, and this topic has been taken up and documented extensively in Rob Walker's (2008) Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are. However good these books are in describing this aspect of consumer behavior, they lack systematic guidelines for how marketing can encourage this use of their brands. Conversational Capital extends the themes of all these books by recommending activities managers can undertake to make their brands part of the lives (read: social identities) of consumers, convert these consumers into becoming “brand advocates” who will, in turn, spread positive WOM and become influential endorsers and salespersons. But how do you create stuff people will have to talk about?

Cesvet, Babinski, and Alper propose that a major goal of marketing should be to create “Conversational Capital.” They explain that this asset accrues to a brand when consumers discover something meaningful in its consumption that leads them to make the consumption story part of their identity. They incorporate the consumption story “into their own narratives – the stories they tell that define who they are and how they relate to the world” (p. 4). Thus, they are empowered and motivated to tell others about the brand, to advocate for it, because the brand has become part of who they are. Their conversations promote the brand because “rather than merely filling gaps in conversation, they are, in essence, talking about themselves” (p. 4). This idea combines the positive word‐of‐mouth concept, the identity formation concept, and the brand advocacy concept into a potent recipe for marketing success, if it can be realized. Conversational Capital is a short book filled with big ideas and organized into three parts.

Part 1 presents the basic ideas along with several examples of brands that successfully create conversational capital. The most paradigmatic is the Cirque du Soleil. The authors describe in detail what it is like to consume this entertainment product and how it exemplifies their main ideas. For good measure, they argue that IKEA is also exceptional in this regard. But what do these and other successful brands have in common that make them benchmarks for other brands? Cesvet et al. proceed to explain how there are “eight engines” that drive conversational capital. Part 1 introduces and illustrates the eight engines, and Part Two contains separate chapters describing in more or less detail what the engines are and how they work.

The first engine is rituals. These are activities related to the brand's consumption that make it unique and meaningful. Examples are the way the acrobats of the Cirque du Soleil interact with spectators prior to the performance or placing a lime wedge in a bottle of Corona beer. A subtype of ritual is an initiation. These are activities that consumers must perform in consuming the brand that separate them from other consumers, the “uninitiated.” Assembling furniture from IKEA is an example. “Ubiquity and commonality are Conversational Capital killers” (p. 72). Thus, rituals and initiations should be unique, as should the next engine, exclusive product offering, or EPO. An EPO is about “experiences that stand out because they remind us we are individuals” (p. 78). In essence, this idea takes up the themes of mass customization and personalization (see Goldsmith, 1999) and puts them in a new framework. The more uniquely a consumer experiences the brand, the more likely it will contribute to identity formation. Moreover, EPO can be created through over‐delivery, anything the brand can do to stand out: “The goal of Conversational Capital is to create experience differentiation” (p. 85).

The third engine is myths, stories about the brand that make it unique and give it personality. Sometimes they are true, and sometimes not; brand managers create myths, but so do consumers (see Walker, 2008 for good examples). Contributing to uniqueness and personality are the brand aspects termed relevant sensory oddity (RSO), essentially anything about the brand that has an unusual sensory quality, including the contents, packaging, etc. People talk about these unusual brand features. Icons are any visual elements representing or associated with the brand that make it stand out, evoke associations, and enrich the consumption experience. Because affiliating with unique social groups is an effective and widely used way consumers identify themselves, tribalism is an engine for conversational capital. “Tribes naturally form around shared feelings, interests, and needs” (p. 116), and belonging to a brand‐centered tribe can be an important feature of social identity. Going beyond the common affinity program, efforts to co‐opt organic brand tribes or to foster them are essential ways to use social networks to promote brands (Brown et al., 2007) and become an engine of conversational capital.

When these engines are running, when the brand becomes part of a consumer's identity, the brand gains endorsement from the consumer, who not only spreads positive WOM, but who advocates the brand. “Peer endorsement is as different from celebrity product endorsement as buzz is from Conversational Capital” (p. 123). Gaining this advocacy is the chief product of strategy. Finally, to preserve, protect, and defend conversational capital, the final engine is continuity. This occurs essentially when managers make sure that three things are equivalent: what you are, what you say you are, and what people say you are.

Part 3 of Conversational Capital argues that customer satisfaction is now the “greens fee” of marketing; if the brand falls short, nothing here will save it. Satisfaction is necessary but not sufficient to promote loyalty and advocacy. Instead, systematic programs must be undertaken. Cesvet et al. propose that mangers should assemble a creative team to attack the problem. This team should conduct a thorough audit of the customer experience and compare it to competitors. The key question is whether the brand consumption is an identity‐shaping experience. Based on the audit's outcome, managers can create an action plan to move the brand to the next levels. The core of the action plan is a story about the brand that makes it meaningful to consumers. Managers are encouraged to use the eight engines as guidelines for telling the story. Finally, a standard implementation program is recommended.

All in all, the book is a good representative of this type of management consulting activity. It identifies possible reasons for some brands' success and suggests how they can be copied.

Conversational Capital is a quick read, written in a conversational (no pun intended) style, and directed to mangers. It is strong on opinions, but it cites little empirical support for its claims. Thus, it is like many books of this type: fun to read, stimulating, and possibly useful for someone who takes the ideas seriously and genuinely tries to follow the recommendations. Consistent with today's environment, the book is conceived as an appendix to a web site and consulting company (www.conversationalcapital.com). The authors invite online discussion of the book and its ideas, thus embodying some of the recommendations they espouse.