January 28, 2006
“chatroom rubbish”
So one of the people over at Stormhoek told this to me:
The Stormhoek boys were having a meeting with one of their largest customers, a UK supermarket chain.
After a long presentation explaining what they were trying to do with the blogosphere, an exec at the supermarket called it nothing more than “Chatroom Rubbish”.
The guy obviously doesn’t get it. So they sent him a paperback copy of The Cluetrain in the hope that it provides him some food for thought.
In supermarkets, everything is a commodity– the management, the products, the customers, the suppliers, the employees, and of course, the supermarket itself.
It’s interesting to me that a exec in a commodity business would describe conversations between people who spend money in their stores as “Chatroom Rubbish”.
Interesting, but not surprising.
I call this phenomenon “Running up against the Commodity Wall”. We bloggers are already very used to it.
Are blogs “chatroom rubbish”? I don’t think so but a lot of people do …
Hugh Macleod (Gapingvoid) posts the latest update to the fascinating Stormhoek wine story :
So one of the people over at Stormhoek told this to me.
The Stormhoek boys were having a meeting with one of their largest customers, a UK super…
Yes, we had similar experiences. Hopefully this guy isn’t in a position to torpedo the whatever deal is in the offering permanently.
It’s interesting that you refer to supermarkets as being in the commodity business. If I remember correctly, UK supermarkets have long been trying to introduce value added private labels, to overcome just this problem. Here in Canada Loblaws, the equivalent to Tesco’s, pushes ‘President’s Choice.
Of course, shelf space is and always will be a commodity and stuff that doesn’t sell will go. This is why supermarkets offer only the illusion of choice. They might sell 100 different makes of white wine, to stay with Stormhoek, but they can only sell what sells. This is where the internet comes in and speciality producers now have a chance to build their own customer base without having to put up with the restrictions of wholesale.
I actually don’t have a problem with commodities per se. Nothing wrong with popping into Wal Mart to buy a new set of jumper cables, when you’re driving through a small American town, after 2 days on the road etc.
See the same thing currently happening with Jung von Matt in Germany because of the “Du bist Deutschland” campaign — he called bloggers the toilet walls of the internet.
I think this agency is learning at the moment, that those toilet walls are speaking to each other and communicating.
Next time those Stormhoek people talk to such management, perhaps they can tell them about me: I don’t even like wine, but I do know this wine. And although I never looked at that part of the supermarkt in my life, I may be now.
And no, I still will not buy wine. But perhaps something else in that area which catches my eye.
Best quote I received from MSM, when trying to promote the Our Social World conference was “oh its like graffiti”.….
As for supermarkets blogging is beneath their radar level at the moment …
Actually just thought — did they really say “chatroom rubbish” thats worrying, it means that they are now aware of online activity, so maybe blogging is now quite close to breakthrough!
Nicole
Some years ago I was contemplating a life in Germany — due to love and all that. I had an interview with Jung von Matt in Hamburg. Never in my entire life have I met anybody who ‘got it’ less than the guy who interviewed me. I walked out of the meeting stunned. Not only had he not taken to time to prepare for the meeting, a common courtesy, he also had no idea about what is happening in the real world.
All he wanted to see were TV commercials, the last thing I was interested in showing — I wanted to see if JvM and I were singing from the same hymn sheet. In the end I terminated the meeting and walked out, figuring that, in my opinion, not only was the creative director I was talking to a dinosaur, he wasn’t even a good ad man. He then had the nerve to berate the HR girl who got me the interview on why she wasted his time with meeting me.
With a bit of luck guys like won’t be around for much longer in our industry.
Why send him the book? He will view it as chatroom rubbish and not deign to open it. They should be telling him the story in a way that addresses his scepticism, not just hoping he’ll read the story.
Geoff
Perhaps it’s not that blogs are below the radar for supermarkets at the moment but more a case of blogs being above their level of comprehension?
Stuart — good point. I will raise it with my supermarket VIP next time I see her. I would imagine blogs just don’t appear in supermarket focus groups, where people biggest concerns are about childless /able bodied people parking in their special places.
Geoff — just think of what a public relations coup a supermarket chain might achieve if they started talking to people on a local level via a blog.
If Google wants to bring search down to the local level then why shouldn’t big and small businesses be taking advantage of that and getting into conversation with the local community?
Oh and a great response to Chatroom Rubbish would have been “Oh, you mean the chat rubbish amongst people that brought down the Berlin Way, that kind of rubbish?”
Duh !! Berlin Wall.
It reminds me of the typical thought of people who discovered the existence of blogs relatively late (in the last 12 – 18 months) and so identify _all_ blogs with the self-indulgent personal diary type. They cannot imagine that is only one way of blogging.
Spotted yesterday at BarCamp Dallas:
Stormhoek Wine!!
Commentary On Cluelessness
Hugh MacLeod describes the gap in thinking between traditional marketers and the new breed busy “open sourcing” their operations. The Stormhoek boys were having a meeting with one of their largest customers, a UK supermarket chain. After a long present…
You’re a true Gentleman. To send him the book as a polite way of introducing him to how the world is working now was a classy move, imho.
It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: You’ve already proven the global influence of blogging…it might have been overkill to publish his name and that of the supermarket chain, just to see how long it would take for word of his ignorance to get back around to him.
Anyway, kudos. And hi from Canada.