Organizations fail to engage customers when they build and protect walls. Organizations fail to engage customers when the building of walls becomes more important than the building of bridges.

1. mobileyouth.org http://www.mobileyouth.org/post/break-down-the-walls/
Graham Brown
Mobile Youth
The Key To Marketing Technology is Breaking Down the
Walls
THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
Vienna in 1900 was the cultural capital of the world.
With its Bohemian mix of artists, writers, scientists and psychologists, the city became a hotbed for
innovation, launching the careers of artists Klimt and Schiele, psychologists Freud and the
pioneering School of Medicine that opened the world to brain science.
In his book, The Age of Insight, author and neuroscientist Eric Kandel, describes the conditions that
made Vienna the Silicon Valley of the late 19th century.
It wasn’t the presence of a handful of gifted scientists and artists but a whole environment
conducive to innovation.
Unlike many cities of the time, Vienna was unique in that it welcomed the intellectual and artistic
elites from across Europe. It’s this multi-disciplinary make-up that created an environment fervent to
discussion and debate across the town’s coffeehouses and salons.
Vienna didn’t happen by chance.
Vienna’s intellectual revolution didn’t happen because one of its more prominent intellectuals
decided to set up shop there and invite the world in.

2. Vienna happened 50 years earlier in 1847 when the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph decided, as a
Christmas present to its residents, to demolish the old walls that enclosed the town. In its place he
built a circular road called the Ringstrasse around which grew the Opera House, Museum of Natural
History and Museum of Art as well as a number of other cultural and scientific institutions.
Consider that action for a moment.
Franz Joseph didn’t invent a radical departure in our understanding of human mind or art but he
merely facilitated it.
And, he didn’t facilitate it through investing money in attracting the right talent, he simply tore down
the walls that stopped it happening naturally.
More From Graham Brown’s Series on How to Sell Technology
If you want to sell technology, stop trying to “have a conversation” with your customers
The 90-10 Rule: Focus on the 10% that influences the 90%
Change Your Metaphors: How great leaders sell technology
The Key To Marketing Technology is Breaking Down the Walls
What the Oscars and Ellen’s Selfie teaches us about selling mobile phones
Give customers what they need: Not more technology but more Social Space
Don’t Teach a Pig to Sing: Why you should master the internal sale first when selling
technology
Why People Buy Technology: Social Proof
Privacy drives the next wave of Social Media Apps
These 2 Social Experiments Show How Stories Sell Technology
The Paradox of Quality: Why Better Technology Fails
Why you need to become a Farmer not a Hunter to sell technology

3. Technology Companies need to Embrace the Unofficial or Die
WHY ORGANIZATIONS FAIL TO ENGAGE CUSTOMERS
Organizations fail to engage customers when they build and protect walls.
Organizations fail to engage customers when the building of walls becomes more important than the
building of bridges.
Building walls may appear logical and have a rationale in efficiency but it ultimately reduces
relationships and, therefore, the value of the product:
* Marketing and research lose the “watercooler” interaction that drives insight and innovation, thus
reducing relevance and relying on outside agencies (e.g. creatives) to join the dots
* When industries try to build walls around their product, customers find their own solutions (e.g.
iTunes) and cut the industry out of the deal. Music industry revenues decreased by 50% from 1999
to 2010 despite their fight against piracy.
* People end up paying more for places where they can hang out and not be coerced into a speedy
exit (e.g. Starbucks, food trucks)
* A study from Stanford University revealed that 98% of students found in-person discussion
seminars more valuable and helpful than online study groups. Students did not mind that lectures
were delivered via online video and audio. However, the human interaction possible in face-to-face
study groups could not be replaced by online discussion groups.
BUILDING WALLS vs BUILDING BRIDGES
Walls Bridges
Purpose Protect, Control Curate, Connect
Music DRM, piracy laws, punitive distribution
agreements, top-down distribution
structure, shelf-space
File sharing, on-demand, Youtube videos
Gaming Xbox One. Prevent gamers sharing
physical product or playing with friends in
same room. DRM.
Offline sharing of games, gamer forums,
multiplayer online but same room,
hacking & mods
EXAMPLE WALLS
Walls:
* lawyers
* policy

4. * departments
* focus group research
* employee manuals
* ad agencies
* terms & conditions
* customer policies
* process
* titles, authority
* convention, tradition
and so on… necessary evils of the organization that end up alienating customers.
GOOD TECHNOLOGY MARKETING IS ABOUT ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
People often ask me,
“how do we engage our Fans?”
Wrong question to ask.
We should be asking,
“How do we break down the walls that prevent our Fans from engaging us?”
Vienna didn’t happen when an architect or town planner released his grand design to the world.
Such is the ego of traditional marketing.
Engagement isn’t the product of strategy but environment and environments aren’t created by plans
but by people.
You see, great technology marketing isn’t about great strategies but creating the right environment
where the magic happens naturally.