I’ve long said that major corporations and marketers simply don’t want to “join the conversation,” so to speak. They’d prefer not to engage in two-way dialogue with their customers and would just as soon keep the one-way megaphone.
But now comes a very persuasive little handboook for those very marketers, The Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World by Kelly Mooney and Nita Rollins, Ph.D.
Despite its small size (think of it as a Lonely Planet Guide to Web 2.0), it’s a very thorough compendium of all the definitions, types, and issues surrounding new media, a profile of the new types of “engaged citizens” and what it means to “open up” a brand to all the new forms of marketing. As it is, it’s a very of-the-moment book, that is to say it may be all different a year from now.
The Open Brand is chock-full of case studies, profiles, diagrams, and techniques for moving brands along. And it also broaches a number of legal issues surrounding blogs and the “fair use” of materials in consumer-generated ideas.
If you, your agency, or in particular a client of yours needs an introduction, replete with glossary, to get them up to speed on new media and Web 2.0-type ideas, The Open Brand is a great place to start. The book does a fantastic job of showing how brands can take the leap, but importantly, why they should.
True to its purpose, The Open Brand has a wiki along with other resources where you can find out more.
Special thanks to FSB Associates for providing me a copy for review.
