The MD of Garage Technology Ventures Guy Kawasaki has outlined what he thinks is the best approach to hooking up with consumer evanglists:
"To a large degree, evangelists find you. First, you have to "let a hundred flowers blossom" by sowing fields, not window boxes. Sure, you may think you have figured out exactly who your target audience is, but then get your stuff out. See where it takes root and flowers. Second, evangelists will emerge from these flowers. You just have to have an open mind to work with them."
This seems like sound advice, but I was less sure about his counsel for 'traditional' businesses:
"They should pretend that they are two guys or gals in a garage, in their senior year of college, broke, and with an idea to create a product that they themselves want to use. Furthermore, they should consider that to these types of people their own company is a big, fat, stinkingly rich cow. The question to answer is, "How can we kill that cow?" Because if companies don't kill themselves, then two guys/gals in a garage will. "
Yet he goes on to cite a list of companies with a great product which include several (Harley Davidson, Apple) that clearly thrive in opposition to a big fat cow. Kill the cow and they would lose a great deal of their brand differentiation.
Kawasaki is licking his lips at the prospect of Bubble 2.0: "I heard Barry Diller say...that if you get enough eyeballs, you can somehow find a business model. Deja vu. Bubble II. I need just one more bubble in my life -- this time I know what to do. I sure hope Barry is right."
