Cluetrain Ours, LoveMarks Theirs

Cluetrain feels like ours.  LoveMarks feels like theirs. What's ours on the Net?

Put aside for the moment question of what's legally ours on the Net. Instead, consider what's ours in a less explicit and less rigorous sense. Google feels like ours (even though it legally belongs to its shareholders) while Microsoft's new search site feels like theirs. Weblogs feel like their ours while online columns do not. The Mac feels like it's ours while Dell computers do not. Craigslist feels like it's ours while newspaper classified ads and Monster.com feel like theirs. In fact, many of us feel and act as if downloaded mp3s were ours. Is this sense of "ours" an illusion? Is it a temporary artifact that will vanish in months or years? What makes something that's not legally ours still feel that way, on the Web or off? And does this provide a way of figuring out why many of us feel so passionately about the load of bits we call the Net?

Why are the battle lines being drawn for Cluetrain v LoveMarks.
Isn't LoveMarks trying to say the same thing?
What is it about LoveMarks that's winding some of us up so much?
Is it Kevin's voice in the book and on the website?
Is it that there's an inconsistency and contradiction in parts of the book?
Why does our gut feel tell us that there's something missing or wrong?

Cluetrain smells right and feels like ours.  LoveMarks doesn't.

Maybe it's just down to Cheerios

I don't think Lovemarks presents a vision of the future beyond brands. In some ways, it epitomises what I dislike about branding practice: too much promise, not enough coherence. I despair of many of the examples used; surely we as a species can do better things with our time than pretend that Cheerios are an efficient way to improve parenting? Johnnie Moore

Sugar Puffs (Honey Monster), Frosties (Tony the Tiger), and Ready Brek (a warm glow), now you're talking!!  What the hell are Cheerios anyway?

Comments

[hugh macleod]

Cheerios are an oat-based breakfast cereal. Huge brand in the States you can also get it in the UK.

I like the "Ours vs Theirs" idea. A lot =)

[Cole]

Lovemarks is "They" because it is not, prima facie, about a principle, process, or ethos that governs all of a companies actions. It is about a quantitative "score keeping" system that is the equivalent of a teacher trying to motivate you with a gold star or a parent trying to make you love him/her by buying a car. Craiglist is a "We" company not because of what they do, but b/c of how they do it. Newspapers, monster, and headhunters have done the "what" that craigslist does for decades, but no one did it how they did it.