My day job is director of marketing for an Internet start-up called Zude. Zude, we like to crow, is the fastest, easiest way to build and manage a personal website. There is lots more you can do with Zude, but you don’t have the time so that’s the boil down.
As people begin to sign up for the Zude Beta launch (May 1) and I review the database of email addresses and comments, I realize that it’s going to be very hard to deal with each of these users (there are thousands) on a one-to-one basis. Now, I have never gone one-to-one with Martha Rogers or Don Peppers, but I would say to them that I can treat my users like individuals. I can mail them more appropriate mail, I can serve up more contextual ads, but I will not be able to have a meaningful conversation with each and every one of them.
What I will be able to do is sample their feelings, their likes and dislikes, and design a brand plan that best delivers on that information. With a promise that’s clean and can be articulated without an Excel chart. If the promise is right and we stick to it, we will have built a brand and a whole lot of “ones” will know what we stand for.