“Markets are networked conversations”, say the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto. In this book Locke, Levine, Searls and Weinberger lay out 95 theses that describe this ‘Marketing Reformation’. Like Martin Luther’s theses, which preceded this rabble rouser’s list by about 500 years, we can distill the cluetrain into some fundamental themes. I’ve identified six themes in the cluetrain:

• Markets are conversations.


• Communities of smart consumers are emerging. Companies must converse with these communities. These communities can form quickly and change at a very rapid rate. This can be thought of as the conversation external to the company.


• Conversations exist within the company between employees and must be nurtured. Think of this as the internal conversation.


• The external community must connect and converse with the internal community. This is the connected conversation.


• Marketing messages must be crafted very carefully in a networked, ‘conversation oriented’ market.


• Methods for positioning a company within a market must change. The positioning message must be in tune with both the internal, external and connected conversations.

The common theme in each of the assertions listed above is ‘the conversation’. By conversation we’re referring to the networked, online activity of consumers as they discuss the good, bad and the ugly of products and services delivered by ‘The Company’. Pick a company – any company. The Consumer Oriented Community has used the internet to turn the tables on the firm.

This conversation has allowed the ‘collective community’ of consumers to gain more knowledge than the company acting as supplier; essentially slapping the firm with the ‘invisible hand’ that was intended to guide it. Consumers have gained a more perfect knowledge of the marketplace. They can now research critical aspects of each product that they intend to buy: price, quality, long term costs of ownership; and they do this by conversing with one another.
Other than a home or a large recreational toy our car is about the largest purchase we make. We’d expect that the ‘conversation’ is occurring within places you’d most expect: Automotive communities. And, in fact, it is.

A recent Keynote study found that 76% of all consumers research cars on the web before purchasing. 65% of these consumers visit non manufacturer websites to get information related to their purchases. The automotive conversation is occurring at hundreds of websites across the internet. The top three sites are: Kelly Blue Book, Cars.com and Edmunds.com.

These community sites provide value by providing the automotive consumer with the ability to research product offerings, compare car specifications, read reviews by trusted industry experts and acquire buying advice by examining numerous lists that rate model, make and manufacturer on a number of different scales. At Edmunds a user forum is in place that allows owners and would be owners to connect. This leads to many interesting conversations about manufacturer quality, product quirks and other sundry topics. Consumers are in touch with consumers. The conversation thrives. These sites have readership and have built communities that post reviews and foster discussion.

Here is one review on Kelly Blue Book for a Buick Rendezvous (an SUV):

“This vehicle is on its fifth BCM, third instrument cluster, third PCM,third battery, third leveling pump and third starter. It has had the intake gaskets replaced as well as the water pump. It also has had the condensor replaced. This has not been a good vehicle. I would not recommend it to anyone else. Thank goodness I have the extended warranty on this vehicle or it would have been a financial disaster.”

Alright then…how do you really feel about the car sir? This a good example of an irritated consumer venting and after a little bit of looking around the sentiments seemed to be shared by a few others. Can conversations move markets? Have markets been changed forever? Can the conversation kill a product? Is it possible for the conversation to make a product wildly successful? Perhaps Apple Computer’s IPOD marketing manager could comment on that one.

The cluetrain crew maintains that discourse has replaced manufacturer monologue. The consumer, through the conversation, is sharing the power with the industry expert. The punditocracy has yielded to the conversation of the consumer who’s voice is louder and stronger because it is amplified by the collective intelligence of the network.

The noise made by a dissatisfied customer is louder now than it was before the network. The conversation thrives. Markets are being manipulated by these conversations.

The conversation is not exclusive to automotive communities. The conversation exists in markets like consumer electronics, durable goods and household goods. Are there markets that won’t be touched by the conversation? Ask the pharmaceutical industry, I’m sure that at one point they thought they were immune.

What about the internal conversation occurring at companies regarding their markets? How have these companies reshaped the way they communicate, collaborate and position? We’ll cover that in Part 3.