POINT 
Tom Hayes, a VP from HP, and Michael Malone, an ABC News columnist, got me thinking about marketing 3.0. So leave your tax loss selling and Christmas wrapping and spend a moment with me reflecting on possible futures for marketing.
For those who want a frame of reference, here’s an explanation of web 2.0. Now onto the future, to Web 3.0.
Wikipedia says that John Markoff, an New York Times journalist, coined the phrase “Web 3.0″ in 2006 to refer to
“a supposed third generation of Internet-based services that collectively comprise what might be called ‘the intelligent Web’–such as those using the semantic web, microformats, natural language search, data mining, machine learning, recommendation agents, and artificial intelligence technologies–which emphasize machine-facilitated understanding of information in order to provide a more productive and intuitive user experience.”
Now Marketing 3.0. Let’s translate these changes into marketing, especially retail marketing. Hayes and Malone, in Marketing in the World of the Web, speculate about what retail marketing means in a web 3.0 world. They call for different tools, concepts and practices. Here are their main points.
1. From Loyalty to Attention. Markers will focus on gaining and rewarding buyers for their attention, rather than their loyalty. Example: Virgin Mobile gives free air time to those who accept ads.
2. From Crowds to Clouds. The crowds in social networks will be turned into cloud-like, self-organizing “communities of interest.” Example: HP follows their brands on Twitter to find those communities. Then cultivate and reward malcontents?
3. From Places to Spaces. Consumers organize themselves into mega-niches that brands will have to become a part of. This requires brands to do bottom-up “friending,” not mass advertising. Example: Gamefaq.com is a niche for gamers.
4. From Memes to bemes. Memes are ideas that pass from one person to another by learning or imitation. The authors coin the term business memes, or “bemes,” to mean messages sent by members of social communities to each other that contain rewards or special offers. Example: “The Subservient Chicken” from Burger King.
5. From Silos to Simultaneity. Offline and online retail will coexist and send customers to each other. Customers will often “experience” products in stores but buy from the web. And online communities send customers to those stores. Example: Best Buy and Macy’s. (The afternoon I write this post I go to Orvis to try on a shirt that I then order in a different size, with additional items, online.)
Hayes and Malone conclude: “Marketing 3.0 is not only different from its predecessors, but actively undermines them. If your marketing program fails to adapt to this new world, it won’t just become irrelevant – it will actually work against you.”
A couple of followup comments on their article:
Ram Krishna says “there is very little ‘monetizing’ to be done from a Facebook-like network for that new, ultra-soft and kryptionite-strong toilet paper brand of yours.”
Stevep71 adds “The landscape is changing but I don’t think the underlying fundamentals are. Develop customer loyalty and those customers are the most significant asset with your prospective customer. Communication is key in executing that strategy. Social networking makes it much easier to communicate.”
Want more on Marketing 3.0?
Jump Point: How Network Culture is Revolutionizing Business, by Tom Hayes
The Future Arrived Yesterday, by Michael Malone
Microformats and Marketing 3.0. Jonathan Mendez, Optimize and Prophesize blog
Marketing 3.0 slideshare Rick Meyer
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