The "New" or "Natural" Conversation

On Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010, Rick Spence wrote an article called, "Are you ready for the new conversation?", for the Financial Post. This "conversation" is referring to Seth Godin's book Permission Marketing, written over 10 years ago. So the conversation isn't "new" per say, but it has surfaced within the last few years and has really pick up momentum since. The conversation is, as Spence discusses, companies building lasting relationships with consumers by providing meaningful incentives. Spence refers to Pepsi's Refresh campaign, where people can apply for grants from Pepsi for projects that will aid their communities or society in general. This philanthropic approach is intriguing. It’s interesting to note that with the growth of globalization and the expansion of social networking sites, there is this “new” approach or reverting back to investing in close communities and social incentives. Is it because the community that globalization, social networking sites, and corporate e-marketing have created is so huge that it’s getting irritably impersonal? It seems that consumers really are responding more so to grassroots marketing and more personable approaches to advertising. Maybe this is Godin’s genius or a natural progression. My friend Jocelyn Soares showed me a great example of this more meaningful approach to marketing shown in this clip below provided by Volkswagen.