My favorite part of the two way dialogue/conversation/chat :) between brand and consumer is showing itself in the area of product design.

Essentially, what is happening is that brands are beginning to understand that they couldn't possibly figure out what each individual customer wants. It was also impossible for them to be able to afford the customers any level
of customization in the age of mass merchandising.

We know that they have been trying for years to get us to buy what they alone manufacture. They've essentially been producing vanilla/plain products and then been letting us know about these products by shouting at us via monologue messages on monologue media. Advances in all arenas have allowed brands to open up the dialogue.

(I kinda' touched on how this is changing in this blog post)

The brand spoke first by designing the basic part of the shoe, and then allowed me to reply by customizing the shoe exactly the way that I wanted to - how brilliantly simple.

This type of activity clearly goes way beyond advertising and creeps into the realm of product development. In my many chats with corporate folks they always tell me that most of the best innovations come from their customers - not their product development team. However, the customers have been shut out for years. A few connected customers saw their input infused into the products and services.

The opening of the door to the every day customer is a great way to see how the monologue world has shifted to a dialogue world.

Granted it will take 4 weeks to get my conversational shoes, but I was involved in the conversation. As you might have guessed - the shoes contain lots of swivel orange.:)

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