A very interesting book for business college students and for business people in general, on how to create products and services that consumers find truly significant, how to intensify consumption experiences to transform brands into market leaders and how to manage and control the word-of-mouth your brand by manipulating eight powerful experience amplifiers. Highly recommended and truly inspiring.

Many books have been written about conversational marketing, word of mouth marketing, buzz marketing - whatever you want to call it. A lot of them describe marketing strategies and techniques, and/or compare companies that "get it" to ones that don't. This book goes way beyond marketing - it focuses on the big picture of what a conversational company is in its essence; in other words, what it is that transforms people from indifferent consumers to product and company evangelists. The analysis explores basic truths about human behavior and focuses on the eight characteristics ("engines") of conversational capital, which the authors describe as "experience amplifiers". They are - rituals, exclusive product offering, myths, relevant sensory oddity, icons, tribalism, endorsement, continuity.

As you can probably tell, Conversational Capital is heavy on theory, using a multitude of abstract terms like "saliency" and "meta-story". This might be a turnoff to practical, what's-in-it-for-me readers, but I found the terminology quite descriptive of marketing and communication concepts that are very hard to get one's arms around. Here's a passage that sums up the point of the book very nicely.

"The goal of Conversational Capital is to create experience differentiation. The residual value of a product or service is increased when consumers are satisfied in a unique and memorable way. This creates pressure on marketers to push themselves harder - not just to become category leaders, but to redefine their categories altogether." (p. 085)

The authors provide a variety of case studies to illustrate their many abstractly stated points. Some reviewers have complained about a lack of real life examples, but I thought the book was fine on that score. Thee authors do rely heavily on Cirque du Soleil, not exactly a typical business model. But, there are plenty of examples of Conversational Capital at work in more familiar settings, such as a Montreal deli, IKEA, Harley Davidson, and many more.

The book is light on implementation advice. The chapters devoted to that subject seem as though they were tagged on at the end as an afterthought. No matter. The real power of the book is twofold. First, it provides a theoretical framework that high level product, branding, and marketing executives can use to recast their products and communication in a way that creates powerful experience differentiation. Second, through the example of IKEA and others, it illustrates to business owners and top leaders how experience differentiation is fundamentally a reflection of them and is manifested in all aspects of the company, from the layout of its showroom to the writing style of its instruction manuals.

Not an easy read, but then again, creating unique and powerful customer experiences is no easy undertaking. The authors say frequently throughout the book that they don't have all the answers, but they have done a fine job of laying out information that should lead us to ask the right questions.

When it doesn't tell you "How To", of course.

In these "Mad Men" days, folks want to know what makes something buzzworthy. "Conversational Capital" defines the components of getting talked about, but falls short when it comes to explaining how precisely to use this information.

Whenever I read one of these business self-help books, I judge it by the following criteria: does the author walk the talk? If this is a book about buzzworthiness, emphasizing the things which make an experience unique, reading it ought to be a unique experience. And yet it's not---the tone is the same faux witty semi-ironic style which marks every "....for Dummies" book. The presentation is the same checklist definition format we see in many of these books. There are precious few images and no scratch n sniffs (so much for Relevant Sensory Oddity). Were it not for this review, I would not be inclined to talk about this book at all---it's the usual hodgedpodge of homemade acronyms, rampant consultant-speak, and the same old superficial list of business examples.

The authors don't walk the talk.

Moreover, since they didn't build any of the brands they use as examples, they have very little credibility.

They may have a nugget of an idea here, but the execution is supremely flawed and the title supremely misleading---this book won't tell you "How To" do anything.

A Book Recommendation from Dan Beaulieu
Conversational Capital: How to Create Stuff People Love to Talk About
By: Bertrand Cesvet with Tony Babinski and Eric Alper
Copyright 2008 by FT Press
Price: $22.99 US/$24.99 Canada
Pages: 181 with Index
First we had books about creating a buzz and then we had Malcolm Gladwell's fascinating The Tipping Point and now we have the all important all new Conversational Capital. I say important because this book does not just talk about what creates interests in products it does not just talk about how to create a "buzz" with your products and services, no this book by Bertrand Cesvet with his associates Tony Babinski and Eric Alper shows you how to create products and services that will get people talking about your company. They show you how to develop product offerings so unique and so absorbing to the consumer that he can't wait to get out there and tell someone about his experience in using your products. Thus creating your company's"conversational capital"
The authors talk about experience, they talk about what it takes to move a solid consumer to a loyal fan to finally a "brand ambassador" for your brand. Using terms like; "salience", "resonance" an "residual value" they show you how to make sure that your consumers are so absorbed into your products' experience that they will want to tell everyone about it. That they will feel so much a part of your company's cachet that they will want to share it, let other people know about it and watch them become a part of it as well.
By making examples of such companies as Cirque de Soleil, Starbucks and IKEA they demonstrate what it feels when companies go way beyond providing entertainment, coffee or household furnishings to a point where they are an integral part of your life experience; an experience that you want to be a part of today and in the future.
We have all felt like this. We all know what it's like to walk into the giant `never closed' L.L. Bean store in Freeport, Maine; or be part of group waiting outside the giant blue striped Circus tent, sharing in the anticipation and build up of a Cirque de Soleil performance, knowing that what you are about to see will change you forever. We all know what loyalty feels like from the consumer's point of view. What we feel like when we just absolutely love something like an I-Pod or in my case right now my new Kindle.
Wouldn't you love to create the same kind of experience for your customers? Wouldn't it be great if you could make your customers your own "brand ambassadors? Well the nice thing is that by reading this book you can, because the authors, as I said earlier have gone much further than talking about companies that have developed this kind of success, rather this book also shows you how to make it happen for your company and your customers as well.
The book ends with a chapter on implementation. In clear and direct language they authors take your through a step by step method demonstrating how you can turn your own products and services that will incite conversational capital and turn your customers into brand ambassadors.
And you know what? Reading this book is fun. It's well written and entertaining as well as being instructional. If ever a business book could be called a "page turner" this is the one. Check out it out and change the way you do business forever.

The key underpinnings of B2C marketing have been fundamentally flawed for some time. The theory went something like this ask consumers what they want, build it, deliver it and ask if they're satisfied. The problem: satisfaction isn't enough. Satisfaction doesn't prompt word-of-mouth, much less action of any sort.

Sure, satisfaction seems to work when you're selling a low-involvement, repeat-purchase product; say laundry detergent. But what happens when someone more imaginative works to decommodify that product? What happens if someone conceives an ultra-concentrated, biodegradable, French lavendar-scented detergent packaged in a Karim Rashid bottle worthy of an industrial design award?

Some consumers will switch. They switch because they look for products that are meaningful and compelling; products that have a story to tell and indeed, tell a story about who buys them. That doesn't come about because someone did market research to gauge satisfaction. It happens because a marketer was imaginative enough to craft a story and engineer a product experience that delivered it.

Conversational Capital tells you how to make that happen. It tells you how to be imaginative rather than merely mechanical. That's a great promise for a marketing world that has left consumers numb and cynical.

When you're ready to challenge your long-held assumptions about marketing and the business world in general, crack a copy of this book.

This book covers why the authors feel certain products become very big sellers and seem to market themselves.

The topics covered are Rituals, Initiation, Exclusive Product Offering, Over-Delivery, Myths (brand story), Relevant Sensory Oddity, Icons, Tribalism, Endorsement, and Continuity.

Detailed descriptions are offered as to how each of these topics influence the marketability of a product.

Examples of companies offering products fitting the descriptions are of Cirque de Soleil, the cooper mini, and crocks the ever so popular plastic shoe as well as many others.

Consumers in the 21st century are developing a whole new relationship between who they are (or aspire to be) and what why buy. Rather than just the utilitarian approach of prior centuries, we now have a much closer relationship with our purchases. As humans, most of us care what others think about us. Many of us strive to fit into a group with whom we affiliate. And, we are acutely aware that what we wear, buy, or drive, identifies us with like minded individuals. Products have turned their labels inside out - literally. We wear the designer's name or the product's brand like a bumper sticker to the world, taking the guess work out of who we are (or trying to be).

Conversational Capital, puts some practical lessons in place for marketers who desire to enhance and perhaps even promote that relationship. Rather than just a one way monologue with the customer - usually performed through mind numbing redundancy and catchy phrases, conversational capitalists, set hooks that capture our attention, and help us identify with their products.

The ultimate conversation is one that someone whose relationship with the product they bought was magnified through a special bond that formed through our identification with the aura (myths, rituals and more) surrounding the company and the product and the pleasing experience we get from its use. When that relationship converts us, and turns us into evangelists ourselves, the marketers have done their job well. People with whom we interact, see and hear about our experience and the product gets an even greater promotional impact from the authenticity of real live consumers - rather than pitch (wo)men hawking their wares - the more authentic and the more influential the evangelist, the better.

Aside from an easy to read checklist of the things we need to consider to get the capital conversation going, the most intriguing point made by the authors is that the reputation of the product is secondary to the reputation of the evangelists themselves. Let them down and no matter what goodwill your brand may have established, your foot soldiers will march away in droves.

We are aware of what this book is talking about, but just on the periphery of our minds. What do you think of when you hear Cirque du Soleil? Schwartz's? Starbucks? IKEA? Harley Davidson?

Something out of the ordinary? Something special? If not this, the very least you think is, "I know what you're talking about."

That's called Conversational Capital. The something that makes the businesses mentioned above and those like them beyond the norm. Special. Stuff people love to talk about.

I find "Conversational Capital," interesting and certainly worth reading no matter what you are promoting. When reading "Conversational Capital," you will recognize what makes businesses leaders in their areas of expertise - you just may not have realized what it is that caught your attention and maybe, your brand name loyalty.

Authors Bertrand Cesvet, Tony Babinski and Eric Alper make the job of creating "Conversational Capital" for your product do-able and it lights the creative fire.

Substance: in today's marketing-driven business world it seems old-fashioned, yet, as failing firms are finding out across the globe, it's the irreplaceable foundation for any successful company. This book shows how to develop it, refine it, then showcase it to your customers in appealing fashion. A great remedy for those who think it's the sizzle and not the steak that matters.

I got this book to find out how companies make people say "WOW" about their store, product or service. To bad I didn't get my answer by reading this book. The information the authors conveyed were interesting but not extraordinary. The definition of conversational capital, examples of how it works and learning about the engines that drive it were new concepts for this reader. Where the book falls short is giving details on implementing the idea. More examples of how companies banked conversational capital are needed - especially how this concept can assist the small town business owner. It seems like it would be easier to get noticed by the Oprah show.

Very good book on marketing and a very cool approach on advertising. Word to mouth!!!!!

I was biased at first because there are so many books (many are terrible) about marketing.

This was a very important spin on things. I had recently read something about viral marketing (using pre-existing social networking), which can be accomplished by word of mouth marketing.

In a world where everything is so commoditized, any competitive advantage for marketing is key. You can't rely only on the internet and direct mail as your only sources for marketing.

As a small business owner, I will agree that the best marketing is when your customers do it for you. It's the most cost effective way. I believe this book offers some great insights that may become a game changer for your business.

This is a good book on Word of Mouth advertising. The best part is the case studies, even if the book is basic in its analysis. It is probably a good book to read overall with Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. I read a lot of business books and this one is above average but not great. It may be better for those who are interested in understanding the basis of word of mouth; for those who read a lot of business books, the value is in the case studies --- never enough to learn from.

There were things I really liked about this book and things I didn't. First, the good. Assuming that a book's value is its ability to present new ideas, shift perspectives or provide a model the reader can use, this book works. It presents a meaningful "8 Engines of Conversational Capital" model [Rituals, Exclusive Product Offering, Myths, Relevant Sensory Oddity, Icons, Tribalism, Endorsement and Continuity.] They posit that the value of an organization, marketing effort or model is its adherence to saliency -- what is important. The 8 Engines seem to do this in that they resonant with my experience. But, that's the problem. My experience is not everyone's experience. The authors try to lead the reader on the whys and wherefores of the engines. They list successful organizations (a lot of which were unfamiliar to me) that have attributes of the 8 engines. But, in the saliency department, proving the import of an attribute requires also looking at information that would disprove. Hypotheses become theories when they hold up under that scrutiny. Alas, the authors "did not heal thyselves" by insisting on the saliency of their own model. The presentation suffers from this as well. They roll out the substantiation in subcategories which the reader has to figure out into which engine the concept belongs.
As I said, the book does have value. But, you, the reader, will have to highlight the take-aways and organize them into your own "salient" notes.

Branding and marketing books are often long on ideas but short on execution. They see getting the big idea across as the primary goal of a book and leave issues of execution and results to either another book or another time. Conversation capital is a brand and marketing book.

Brand and marketing professionals may view this book differently, but I am reviewing this book as an executive that is trying to find new approaches to growth, our value proposition, etc. To that end, while Conversation Capital has a few interesting ideas and some counter-intuitive advice, it does not deliver the analysis and results that make it distinctive enough to cause me to change our approaches.

Conversation capital is organized around the following building blocks, the eight engines. With short and very readable chapters organized around each. They are:

Rituals
Initiation
Exclusive Product Offering
Myths
Relevant Sensory Oddity
Icons
Tribalism
Endorsement

The value of this book for me was in how it brought ideas of the conversation, engagement, and experience into a new format. The book uses a rapid succession of sound byte case examples taken from leading companies like Cirque du Soleil, IKEA, Apple, Starbucks, and others. These are all staples of marketing books and much of the analysis is not particularly insightful. Citing companies is good, but the mentions are examples, rather than references of the work that the authors have done and the results achieved from applying these principles.

The first sentence of the introduction states that the book is about why certain brands outperform others - the book does not answer this question in my opinion. If I am reading the book to assess how these ideas apply to me, what I would do, I need more than a 30-word statement of what others have done.

Conversational Capital focuses primarily on consumer - bricks and mortar companies and examples. It is surprisingly silent on the use of new media, social computing, web 2.0, communities, which are all things that are reshaping, and disintermediating brands and marketing departments. The authors will point to a few examples, but again there is not much analysis or a discussion of how these things change their model or make their model the more relevant.

So why three stars, rather than two or one? The book made me think again about the foundations of our products and services. The counterintuitive examples around initiation and sensory oddity were different. If you are looking for a deep book that gives details and implementation support you will need to start a different conversation.

I can only acknowledge the existence of a very few business books that give me a new lens from which to approach challenges, foster strategies & develop solutions. Sadly, all too few books of this genre accomplish these ideals, much less lay out a flexible process to realizing their ideas. This book does.

When it's time to design products and communications that matter, the triggers of Conversational Capital are a pragmatic tool. Sure, they aren't by any means scientific, but as you read the book and the cited examples, they just make sense. And yes, as some critics have stated, these very engines and ideas could fit under the heading of the 4Ps. But what in marketing or business couldn't fit under that heading?

If companies were already striving to generate Conversational Capital, we would be living in a very different world.

So how do you create products and offerings that people rave over? The things that become urban legends and nearly sell themselves with almost no effort? Bertrand Cesvet (with Tony Babinski and Eric Alper) looks at that elusive target in the book Conversational Capital: How to Create Stuff People Love to Talk About. You may not be able to turn your product and brand into the examples covered here, but you'll have a much better understanding of why the conversations happen in the first place.

Contents:
About The Authors; How This Book Came Together; This Is An Open Source Book; Forward by Hermann Deininger; Introduction
Part One - Defining Conversational Capital: What Is Conversational Capital?; The Eight Engines of Conversational Capital; How Conversational Capital Works - Cirque Du Soleil, Ikea, Schwartz's; Why Conversational Capital Works; Conversational Capital Is Not Buzz; Conversational Capital And Advocacy; Conversational Capital Is For Everyone
Part Two - The Engines of Conversational Capital: Rituals; Initiation; Exclusive Product Offering (EPO); Over-Delivery; Myths; Relevant Sensory Oddity (RSO); Icons; Tribalism; Endorsement; Continuity
Part Three - Implementing Conversational Capital: Getting Started; Designing a Solution; Implementation; And Two More Questions
Glossary of Terms; Index

It's hard to deny that attending a Cirque Du Soleil performance or visiting an Ikea store is an experience that far surpasses going to the circus or visiting a furniture store. But what is it that causes these brands to evoke such strong emotion and passion in those who experience them? Cesvet calls this "conversational capital", the process of consumers becoming vocal and committed advocates of an experience. This "capital" can allow a business to transcend and redefine the market. After analyzing these exceptional brands (including but not limited to Crocs, Altoids, Guinness, and Corona), he found eight drivers, or "engines", that are all (or in large part) present for these offerings. The engines are rituals, exclusive product offerings (EPO), myths, relevant sensory oddities (RSO), icons, tribalism, endorsement, and continuity. For instance, rituals include a driver called initiation. This is where an offering has a certain component that involves overcoming some internal or external obstacle. Take Cirque... there's that dead time between the doors opening and the show starting. Cirque doesn't waste it, however. The clowns start to wander around the venue and interact with the audience. There's a chance that anyone sitting there might end up being part of the show, whether they want to be or not. It's not a high level of initiation, but it does create a certain edge that makes the preshow something that can't be written off as normal. This is but one example of how the engines of conversational capital can come together to make something far greater than the sum of its parts.

There's no sure-fire way to get these engines to fire every single time you want them to. The implementation plan discussed in Part 3 is pretty basic, but at least it's far better than just hoping for the best. I find that often the key to success is starting to understand what you don't know. After reading Conversational Capital, I had a much better understanding of how those special businesses and brands have become that way. This is well worth reading...

This book covers a topic I've always been interested in, but never bothered to discover.

A few great ideas on a seemingly obvious topic...after I read it i was having a "why didn't I think of that" feeling. Hindsight is 20/20 and this book points out all the things we could have done, yet still can.

4*, great concept which is largely uncovered compared to every other marketing book out there.

The takeaway message is: experiential marketing, or delivering an experience to the consumer that goes beyond a simple transaction; if you want to have conversational capital for your company or a product, you must convert your customers into advocates by giving them a reason to promote your products.

The authors list a few successful examples (Cirque de Soleil, Adidas, etc.), and extract a few common patterns but fail to deliver a clear action plan for building 'conversational capital' - it felt like the thought process was never brought to a logical conclusion. If you're looking for a book in this genre, I would recommend taking a look at 'Buzzmarketing' by Mark Hughes, or 'Juicing the Orange' by Pat Fallon.

Conversational Capital is more than getting people to talk about your products. It is about creating advocates--customers who endorse products and share them with their peers.

For me, the meat of the book is in the descriptions of the Engines of Conversational Capital:
Rituals
Initiation
Exclusive Product Offering
Over-delivery
Myths
Relevant Sensory Oddity
Icons
Tribalism
Endorsement
Continuity

The authors refer to each of these engines as "experience amplifiers." They create more positive, memorable customer experiences and increase customers' passion for your brand. The more engines you use, the greater your results can be.

If there is a failing in the book, it is the lack of attention to using online voices in creating conversational capital. Engaging bloggers, peer reviewers, and social media networks is not necessarily the same as dealing with traditional branding and word of mouth. The authors and publisher used new media to promote the book, so clearly they see the value.

However, even without sufficient (in my opinion) attention to online conversations, the book is full of useful concepts and ideas. Conversational Capital provides insights that will help you to build your brand and create customer evangelists.

For some reason I couldn't really get into this book. Maybe it was the writing style. Not quite sure. Also not sure how to go about applying the ideas in the book to a real-world situation. It's nice to have them outlined somewhat, with examples, it's just not clear how to take the examples and adapt them to an existing or upcoming real-world project / product.

As I said, it was okay, but didn't do much for me.

A thought-provoking and refreshing look at an industry that (until I read this) seemed to have been doing the same things, the same way for far too long.

The book was a fast read, yet even though long since finished, I keep it close by as I tend to refer to the eight engines of Conversational Capital fairly often.

The book managed to clearly convey Cesvet's creative thought processes in a manner that was easy for me to assimilate. I particularly enjoyed that a large part of the success of CC is placed squarely in the hands of "The Brand" to deliver on it's end of the experience.

Of course now every time I have a stellar "brand experience", which admittedly is rare (I'll cite The Apple Store as an example of stellar), I start to evaluate how I am contributing to the Conversation Capital of that very same brand by working said experience into my daily conversations and personal interactions...

Lately, I've found myself getting more involved in design because I've suddenly been charged with making presentations for a project I'm involved in ... naturally, this led me to trying to understand even more about displaying information for easy, effective communication. In turn, that led to reading up on such brilliant material as those of Seth Godin's and that, in a roundabout way, is how I came to be interested in how companies produce superlative products.

Conversational Capital, the book, is well-produced and its authors seem to have the right pedigree for this sort of work, but after slogging through what must have been the driest first chapter of any book in my reading history, I had to put it down.
While the idea of conversational capital itself can be interesting, and originally attracted me to this book, the authors' writing style I found boring and uninspiring.

This book delivers its most important punch in simply listing the things that cause people to talk positively about your business:
1) Rituals
2) Exclusive Product Offerings
3) Myths
4) Relevant Sensory Oddity
5) Icons
6) Tribalism
7) Endorsement
8) Continuity

The book gives numerous examples of companies that have large "fan" bases, and talks about some of the reasons that they do. Nevertheless, this doesn't necessarily help people figure out how to create these conversational capital points in their own businesses. At 170 pages, it seemed hard to get through for what it is. You're not left with any feelings of "I'm going to implement THAT!", because you're still going to have to figure out how you can create something to talk about in your own business. Since you have to be creative enough to find these things yourself, you're probably already working on them anyway. This book might be exactly what you're looking for, but for me, I found it pretty dry.

Conversational Capital has very good information. I see others have given the book a neutral or negative review. I believe that this book is going to be either a hit or miss for you. It depends on what it is your looking for. I for one have a company that I have launched with a couple of partners. I needed insight for branding as well as tools for implementing ideas. Basically we needed direction and organization. These guys have worked with notable and highly successful companies and yes, they name the names. I enjoyed reading their thoughtful process when involved with clients and also the direction a company needs to take in order to become a brand. Word of mouth, a client base that takes on a life of it's own; a following. It must be unique, it must have an emotion that people can relate to as well as something to talk about.

Those elements alone in the book were extremely insightful because if you have one, and not the other - then fill the holes. Find ways to make your brand work for your following. They want a reason to follow.

Four stars, a very worth while read.

To put it simply, I decided to read this book because I'm a small business operator and it seemed like the contents of the text could help me in that regard. From that perspective, I'll give Conversational Capital a mixed grade. That's mostly because of a bit of a split that happens in the latter part of the book.

First, let me say I did find a lot of really interesting material. The discussions of the different aspects of Conversational Capital - which the authors put forth as something beyond just word-of-mouth - was enlightening. It's not a real intense study on these elements, and perhaps could have been done in a better presentation, but with the help of numerous case studies the reader is in the end presented with a lot to consider in terms of the product(s) and/or business they are pursuing or thinking about. From that perspective, I found the book very worthwhile.

Where I was brought up short, however, was in the latter part of the book where implementation was discussed. The first thing the authors talk about is the need for highly diverse planning/strategy groups to be involved in the process. The implication is that Conversational Capital can really only be optimally employed by large organizations. Obviously, as a small business person that left a bad taste in my mouth.

For that reason, and because I think the book could probably have been put together more usefully in terms of the overall presentation, I'm only going to give the book three stars. I do like the message, though.

Conversational capital offers tools to bridge the divide between marketing and design. Coming from a business background and constantly working with different types of designers from all over the world, I often need to plunge in my bags of tricks to lead productive workshops where I act as a mediator. The tools provided in conversational capital, such as the Eight Engines, allow me to do just so. It's a great framework to workshop with business and creative minds. It's another string to my bow. It simplifies my job, to ensure designers' buy-in on business strategy and product/service marketer's respect of the designers' creative intent. A great read.

While the authors have come up with some interesting new ways of looking at and defining the marketing process, there is nothing startling or revelatory here, unless you are completely new to marketing in the Internet age.

The authors basically define Conversational Capital (CC) as a deeper understanding of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing, and have derived several "engines" that drive the process (rituals, initiation, exclusive product offering, over-delivery, myths, relevant sensory oddity, icons, tribalism, endorsement, and continuity). The book is divided into three sections:

Defining Conversational Capital

The Engines of Conversational Capital

Implementing Conversational Capital


They differentiate CC from WOM, buzz, and advocacy, but admit that there is some overlap in all of them.

They use the examples of IKEA, Cirque du Soleil, and Schwartz's deli to illustrate their ideas. Their method of analyzing this form of marketing is interesting and makes a great deal of sense. Their take on marketing is modern and fairly well in tune with what is happening today. The book is an easy read, informative, and not a bad way to approach marketing today.

The one big "gotcha" for me is near the end of the book when they admit that insight is an important part of the process, but that there is no really good way to consistently generate insight into your market. They admit that all one can do is have all the ingredients in place and hope for that "aha!" experience. This, for me, is the crux of the issue. All the clever positioning, packaging, and all the other marketing tricks in the world won't do you any good if your product/service just doesn't "catch fire" with the market.

While the authors have crafted a good book on marketing today (which is almost certainly part of their marketing for their services), they have not written the last word in marketing. They know this and invite readers to engage them through their net resources (also a marketing tactic).

While I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this book, it is certainly worth reading, whether one is directly involved in marketing or not (and marketers insist that everything is about marketing, anyway).

Supporting consumer referrals and conversations is great, but what if no one is talking about your product or service? This book goes beyond the rhetoric on peer-influence. There are many good case studies and examples, but the author takes it one step further and defines a structure that any reader could use to stimulate thought and generate ideas. It's the difference between copying other people's ideas and coming up with your own, giving you that special edge. It defines a broader, more proactive role for marketing in the social economy.

"Experience-based" economy, or the way people can talk about their experiences, is as important for consumers as the actual consumption experiences themselves. The use of conversational capital in an environment will not only allow for a new type of transaction to take place but I believe that the customer will welcome this new interaction and return the favour by giving back 'conversational capital'. We can now push the limits of customer relationship through the use of relationship-based story-telling elements such as tribalism, iconography etc... I hope that our customers will seek greater freedom of choice and are willing to pay for it!

Great book, great insights!

Thank you

I was surprised both by Conversational Capital and the several visceral reviews of it. As someone who works on the client side in marketing, I found that the thinking in Conversational Capital was anything but obvious. Sure, marketing has its four Ps that seem obvious enough. But whoever told the story of how to get the most out of those Ps?

I find myself talking about the products I buy incessantly. And I know that,s not unique to me. While innately I,ve sensed that we talk about what we buy to tell the world about ourselves, this book confirms that belief. But more importantly, it leaves you with a clear view of how to make your brand, your product, maybe even you, part of those conversations.

The principles in this book might not sound scientific. They probably aren,t and that,s ok. Conversational Capital is a worthwhile read because it challenges your preconceptions about making product that people care about. I can only hope that more marketers were willing to be so challenged.

I was interested in Conversational Capital for a variety of reasons, one of which was of course why people talk about certain companies, many times without even realizing they are pushing a brand. So, I dived into the book expecting a lot of examples of their "Conversational Capital". The book starts out fine, but I kept waiting for the big long list of companies, and how the topic applied to them, but it just never came. They gave a few examples, but considering they had created a new "marketing plan", I was expecting a lot more. I would have liked to see about 30 examples of companies using some of these techniques that increase brand awareness, and of course profits. The book can be confusing at times, and they seem to really want you to visit their website to continue the "conversation". So, I couldn't give the book a high rating. I found it useful and interesting, but when the book itself doesn't live up to it's own points, I think it leaves you with some doubt.

This book was actually a little better than expected. It's not very long and is an easy read. I actually finished it in an afternoon. Looking at the title, you might think it a book about marketing. But, it's much more than that, it's about the entire customer experience and trying to create peer-to-peer sales for your product/company. As the owner of a company, I thought this would be very interesting.

As a former sales/marketing professional, it's obvious to me that word-of-mouth is the best way to sell. The book does spend a chapter trying to convince you of the power of that. But, it does quickly jump into more practical matters. If you're looking for a cookbook that says "First do A, then do B", this is not the book for you. But, then that book does not exist either. Each business is unique and the most any marketing book is going to do is to inspire you, to maybe point you in some general directions and you'll have to figure out the specifics.

The book breaks down "Conversational Capital" (the things that make your clients want to talk about you) into several categories. Some of the categories were a bit of a stretch (like endorsement which is actually what you are trying to achieve). I found myself grabbing a notepad as I was going through the various forms of Conversational Capital (such as ritual, myth, icon, etc.) and making notes of what we were doing already and what we could do going forward. Many of the things were already doing intuitively. But, having formal categories helped spark some further ideas.

The book wraps up with a little more of a cookbook approach which, as an entrepreneur with a very small business I found to be almost worthless. My wife and I are the team. But, I can see how that chapter would be beneficial in a larger organization.

Overall, the book is worth the small investment of time and money it'll take you to get through it. If it inspires even one idea, it's worth the few hours it'll take you to read it. Overall, I'd say it was a very good find.

This poorly written book presents simple ideas in an incoherent way that attempts to appear novel and smart. After reading this book I was left with the sense the authors feel it is impossible to under estimate the intelligence of their readers/clients. The glossary contains words used in their normal sense but defined in a confused way, for example:

"multidisciplinary--Key to Fostering Conversation Capital is the act of assembling multidisciplinary teams. An effect team is assembled from A-listers who are not homogeneous, who come come from diverse educational, cultural, occupational and socio-economic realms."

The glossary contains similar jumbled definitions for smoked meat(?), insight, conversation, word-of-mouth, standardization,..., the list goes on but i won't.

I suggest reading Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and Influence: Science and Practice in particular the chapters titled "Social Proof", "Liking" and "Scarcity" to understand this topic better.

Their qualification for writing seems to be based around their involvement with Cirque du Soleil. As the saying goes "One Swallow doesn't make a Summer."

This book is self indulgent, bombastic nonsense--don't waste your time or capital.

I had high expectations for this book. The topic - how to create viral buzz that explodes sales and profits without the usual costs of self-promotion - certainly is important and offers great promise. Conversational capital is something every business owner dreams about, fantasizes about. Unfortunately, at least for me, this book fails to deliver. Its ideas and content were more suited for an article. It just didn't contain enough meat to sustain a complete book.

Conversational Capital rightly explores the idea that consumers are looking for experience - that they will talk, support, and become promoters of great experiences. "Experiential Marketing" and other books have made similar points and done a better job. Conversational Capital would have been better off as a chapter in a marketing book, especially a marketing book that explores consumer driven behavior.

Conversational Capital offers 8 "engines" that drive such consumer advocacy:

1. Rituals
2. Exclusive Product Offering
3. Myths
4. Relevant Sensory Oddity
5. Icons
6. Tribalism
7. Endorsement
8. Continuity

All of this is good stuff, at least sounded good. The problem is that there was no empirical proof given, no real case studies (other than some anecdotal stories based on a few companies looked at by Conversational Capital). There was also little in terms of how-to. This book starts the conversation (forgive the pun please) by examining this important aspect of experiential marketing but it is only a start. It goes no-where near far enough. Wait for more meat or get a summary of this book.

I think that I have this straight. The authors, Cesvet, Babinski and Alper wrote a book about the fact that if people like your product, and tell others about, that is good for the product. Further, the recommendations from others, now called Conversational Capital, is a newly focused paradigm that differs from all of the things that Marketing 101 tells you to do in a marketing department, except now we have new names for these things: Rituals, Exclusive Product Offerings, Myths, Relevant Sensory Oddity, Icons, Tribalism, Endorsement, and Continuity, instead of the 5 P's - Product, Packaging, Promotion, Price, and Place. The authors mention that they are not original and on that we can agree: they are not. This is a regurgitation of the same things that have been in marketing for many years, except that the names have been changed and the authors are trying to set up a website where others log on and introduce new ideas and situations. What they are going to do with this information is not clear. As a small business owner, I've found that it's not the names of the functions; it is the execution of the plan. And this book does not cover the execution of anything.

The authors use Cirque Du Soleil as their main example. They also insist that Cirque is one of the few companies that they know of that uses all "8 Engines" of Conversational Capital. I find that very difficult to believe. What I find easier to believe is that since the authors are marketing consultants for Cirque, they have decided to narrow their focus to a company that they understand inside and out. This is a very narrowly researched and examined topic. If this is one of the few companies that use their theory, then there are many companies doing something else that is working just as well. Additionally, they never use a manufacturing company as an example. What about General Electric - one of the most successful companies in the world in a variety of markets. Surely they must do something right? Or how about Honda?

As a second example, the authors use a deli in Montreal to prove their thesis. They say that this company uses the lines of customers waiting for entry into the restaurant as an example of their concept of "ritual". If this were something that a company actually instituted as a marketing function, that would mean that the company plans to keep people in line in order for them to purchase the food so that they can "initiate" the customer. This is a ridiculous assertion. It's more a function of the customer trading his/her time to wait for a product that they purchase at the right price, and in the right place (3 of the above old line thinking 5 P's). They also ask the reader to add their concept of "Relevant Sensory Oddity" into the deli example - owing to the environment of smells and sounds of the Schwartz's deli. Instead, I would place this in the category of smells and sounds that are necessary to meet the customers' purchase of the product. Yes, they may be terrific, but what is the choice? Should the restaurant hang skunks to ward off customers? This is not a choice made to add to the marketability of the company; these are by-products of the delivery of product to the customer.

Exclusive Product Offering is another of the "engines". Sounds a little like "Product" from the original 5 P's. In this chapter, the authors try to make a new approach of product differentiation as part of the Conversational Capital. But it doesn't fly. The differentiated product may cause Conversational Capital, but didn't it always?

And then we get the payoff: How to design a solution. It requires a team because it is so complicated and that team should be multi-cultural - hey, that's us - the authors, because we're Canadian and not quite American and not quite European, but a combination. We'd be perfect!!! Wow, I didn't see that coming. And did we tell you we have a website where people are giving us ideas daily? The authors believe that 50% of all advertising dollars are lost. They continue, "Nothing displeases number crunchers more than unpredictability, except maybe waste. Conversation Capital is based on unquantifiable factors, such as creativity and insight. We suggest that it makes more economic sense to invest in Conversational Capital than in traditional marketing." However, there is not one shred of documentation for this or anything else in this book.

I could continue to belittle this text, but I'm not going to. The bottom line is that if the authors had remained on a narrower theme - showing that instead of the use of mass marketing campaigns that currently "create a buzz", companies would more efficiently use their resources to create customer awareness through peer to peer recommendations, then maybe there is something to see here. If they had researched this across hundreds of companies and shown how money spent in this manner versus money spent in other areas of marketing differ, I could see a book being written. But the creation of an entirely new marketing paradigm as suggested by the authors is more than a stretch in my opinion. Again, writing a complete book that is so incomplete and under researched is just not worth the money for it. This is typical of today's "cash in quick" generation. There is nothing here to show for their efforts. There is no plan; nothing for a company to put in place. Mostly they take the standing of a current company and show how wonderful their Conversational Capital is. In my opinion, their Conversational Capital is a result of the company doing the real marketing correctly - the old 5 P's. I'm giving it a 2- star rating because they might eventually have an idea, but this book doesn't tell the story.

Have you ever wonder how certain well known brand name products last for so many, many years?...ever wonder if you can create a product or idea for one that would last as long as they did and still do today?. Then this book is a great start for those who would want their own business and product line which will show you how to make your product roll with the big boys and be remember able. The book has a wonderful brief history of the companies they talk about, how they got started and tells the readers how they stayed on top of the line product line for so many years. Not to bad of a read if you are interested in other people's ideas. Recommended

There's about one magazine article's worth of real content in this book. Most of the book goes along these lines: 'Starbucks did this, adidas did that, what can YOU do to achieve the same effect? Contribute your ideas to our web site...'

The principles behind the term "conversational capital" are basically common sense. For example, "overdelivery", which would commonly be referred to as "exceeding expectations". I suppose having these common sense ideas listed would be helpful to someone just starting out, but it seems to me that if you thought about what you're doing, you'd arrive at the same ideas.

Ironically, the copy of the book I received was very poor in terms of printing quality--I have never seen so many stray marks throughout any other printed book. So while attempting to instruct in the ways of creating a good image for your company, the publishers created a bad image for themselves.

For a non-business or marketing-oriented person, this book illustrates WHY people love a product or service, which in turns create word-of-mouth advertising and repeat business for retailers.

The text highlights the elements of successful businesses; mass customization; and shows what other organizations have done to attract and keep customers. This book can be as useful as autobiographies of famous or successful people. If one wants to know what others did (or how they became successful), this book makes a good read. The authors provided sufficient research on how to give consumers what they [think they] want, based on retailers achievements.

I was interested in this book because I'm a writer who is constantly looking to obtain that elusive word-of-mouth advertising. So, I checked out this book.

What I truly liked about the book is the careful points it makes towards creating "conversational capital" or word-of-mouth advertising. I started looking at the authors who were successful -- and also at my own success -- and realized I was doing a lot of this, but could learn more. Basically, the authors have come up with "eight engines" that work with conversational capitalism and show how brands like IKEA and Cirque de Soleil use these engines to promote themselves.

The authors go into great depth with examples. It's truly a map for how to generate word-of-mouth advertising. I'm going to be referring to this book a lot in the near future.

This book is about how to create stuff that people love to talk about - creating conversational capital. It's too bad the authors didn't write a book that makes sense. I just could not plug into this book. The concepts were just plunked down - with no compelling case being made or justification being built. Some of the examples were fine, while others just did not seem to flow from the concepts they had set up previously.

What I love about this book is that it pays attention to something that has always been important to me in my decision-making process when buying stuff. I buy when I can really connect with a product, brand or the producer. I was at a store selling wool T-shirts last week where I could trace back to the sheep where the wool came from, that I like. So I realise I am not your average consumer.

That means that anything that acts as a wake up call to producers and marketers to create better, more intense experiences for consumers will always get my backing.

This book is easy to read and clear in its message. It is both accessible and allows anyone in marketing or product development to be more aspirational and creative.

The use of a huge range of examples works to act as a constant confirmation of the idea of Conversational Capital throughout the book.
Love it!

Word of mouth is what all product developers have always been wishing for. We all know that pier to pier recommendations have more impact than any ad will ever have, but as the marketplace becomes crowded with new stuff and consumers become more sophisticated, the pressure to create the ultimate "experience" is constantly increasing. The bar is set higher and higher everyday and this book gives you a step by step recipe to insure that your new offer has all it takes to get the gossip going. The outcome might be obvious, but the road to get there is a little trickier than we think.