Home > Resource Centre > Blog > Dare to Dream

Dare to Dream

keytar

Why keeping it real for customers can be an epic fail.

By Tasman Richardson

I recently came across a short interview in which 4chan founder Chris Poole (a.k.a. Moot) explained why he felt that Facebook and Google+ were doing it wrong. For those that don’t know, 4chan is a message/image board which is best known for being a kind of meme petri dish and second home to the group known as Anonymous. Reminiscing about the good ol’ days of geekdom on the web, Moot said that the made up aliases or handles that people used were important facets of their personality. He felt that, by stripping away the smoke and mirrors, users were losing their carefully crafted alter egos.  For example, Facebook allows for a certain amount of nicknaming but doesn’t allow for multiple accounts by the same user. Google+ with its good intentions has eliminated nicknames all together in an attempt to prevent businesses from setting up potential spam accounts. With everyone being encouraged to be their “real” selves, there’s no way to preserve the complex online self.

Alter egos are more than secret identities. They’re crafted fantasies of what we would like to be. This is especially true of all the dabbling consumers love to do. Garage bands, basement film makers, moonlighting authors, budding chefs, amateur athletes… hold up, who you calling amateur? There’s nothing worse than loving something that’s not your job and having your friends and family shoot it down because… it’s not your job. You’re not a REAL musician, you’ll never be a tennis PRO. But it’s the fantasy that makes dabbling great, and when a company encourages that fantasy, it’s like they’re saying, “we believe in you” or to be more direct: “Just do it”.

By believing in consumer fantasy and alter ego, products encourage advanced usage and transform the user behaviour. Apple enabled music and video dabblers with tools like imovie but then went further by merging the professional software brand with the consumer entry level brand. This kind of brand amalgamation while hugely unpopular with the smaller pro audience, was an instant hit with couch directors and daydreamers, making it the most popular software download in the App Store. The same goes for sports, cooking, home hardware, personal grooming, etc. If you want to empower consumers, you’ve got to dare to dream with them. 

Links:

http://dailyinfographic.com/facebook-wall-of-shame-infographic

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/4chans_chris_poole_facebook_google_are_doing_it_wr.php

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/howlett/what-does-final-cut-pro-x-teach-enterprise-vendors/3225

Share
Tasman Richardson Published November 1, 2011 by Tasman Richardson This entry was posted in Blog, Resource Centre, Targeting and tagged , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Amber

    I love this line “If you want to empower consumers, you’ve got to dare to dream with them.”  Fantastic!

    As for anonymity online.  Wonder if it’s generational (gawd I sound old).  For me, I’m uncomfortable in an online space where I don’t “know” who I’m interacting with.  Not that I really know them, but I want to feel like I do.  Things like Second Life creep me out.  Maybe I need to find an alter ego and see what the fuss is all about!

    • Tasmanrichardson

      thanks! I can understand the discomfort. anonymous space is essentially unregulated space. The key is adjusting to the good with the bad. freedom from identity and culpability can lead to real honesty. Ironically, the lack of transparency is what allows for really opening up. The potential for comedy, interaction, cruelty, and revulsion are all equally expressed. I’ll be sure to follow up on this in my next blog.

    • Jennifer Smith

      Alter egos are about PLAY.  Kids grow up used to being the alter ego characters they’ve been in the gaming world for so long…Sims, Runescape, Kingdom Game, Spore, Club Penguin and Habbo Hotel to name some of the zillions focused on kids.  Then there is Call of Duty.  COD World of Warfare 3 launched this week with an opening larger than any movie box office (I think in History!).  So, no one is arguing that alter egos are FUN…but to me there is a time and a place for them.  I disagree with 4Chan founder’s view.  I think it is great to have social networks where you can just be yourself (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn).  The best part is that there is something for everyone out there.

      • Tasmanrichardson

        I think freedom to be yourself is the goal of most online activity. It may be a matter of which medium people were raised with that influences wheather they feel multi-faceted / disembodied aspects are more “real” vs. verifiable, posting/sharing documentation is more “real”. For many of us, television preceeded the web. For others, web 1.0 preceeded youtube and facebook. So we’re all reacting to this maliable space with different definitions of real, and yet all of us are trying to agree on a common syntax.

  • Libier

    Dreaming with your consumers builds stronger emotional connections. It goes beyond the product and creates brands.