Product Description

 Markets are conversations. Talk is cheap. Silence is fatal.  "You must read the Cluetrain Manifest. So: read it , inhale it. If it pisses you off...GREAT" Tom Peters  What if the real power of the Web lay not in the technology behind it, but in the profound changes it brings to the way people interact with business? And what if these changes were altering the nature of your company as profoundly as they have changed your markets? With language as sharp and compelling as its observations. www.cluetrain.com burst unexpectedly onto the scene with 95 Theses to ignite a vibrant and viral conversation, making hash of corporate assumptions about the nature of online business. Provocative, outrageous and wickedly smart, the manifesto has challenged executives from Global 1000 companies to sign-on or risk missing a genuine revolution.  Expanding on ideas and insights first nailed up on the Web. The Cluetrain Manifesto both signals and explores a sea change already nearing flood tide in today's wired world. Through the Internet, people are discovering new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a result, markets are getting smarter than most companies. Whether management understands it or not, networked employees are an integral part of these borderless conversations. Today, customers and employees are communicating with each other in language that is natural, open, direct and often funny. Companies that aren't engaging in them are missing an unprecedented opportunity.  A rich tapestry of anecdotes, object lessons, parodies, insights and predictions. The Cluetrain Manifesto illustrates how the Internet has radically reframed the "immutable laws" of business - and what business needs to know to weather the seismic aftershocks.  "When people in networked markets can get faster and smarter information from one another than from the companies they do business with, it may be time to close shop. Or, maybe it's just time to get on The Cluetrain and fully understand that your customers are living, breathing creatures who want one-to-one relationships with your company, not just one-way rhetoric." Don Peppers, co-founder of Peppers and Rogers Group, and co-author of The One to One  "For every consumer-products company wondering why its internet marketing doesn't seem to be working" Business Week  "The most important business book since in Search of Excellence. Get a clue. Read the book"Information Week..."  

" Most marketing campaigns are based on the fear that the market might see what's really going on isnide the company.  Sound familiar? If it does then you've already come across the Cluetrain Manifesto...... If you haven't already then you should make it your business to do so.... Until big brands embrace more of the Cluetrain thinking, the anti-capitalist rioters might just have a point."                                                                        Campaign, August 2001

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #250022 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
How would you classify a book that begins with the salutation "People of Earth..."? While the captains of industry may dismiss it as mere science fiction, The Cluetrain Manifesto is definitely of this day and age. Aiming squarely at the solar plexus of corporate America, authors Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls and David Weinberger show how the Internet is turning business upside down. They proclaim that, thanks to conversations taking place on Web sites and message boards, and in e-mail and chat rooms, employees and customers alike have found voices that undermine the traditional command-and-control hierarchy that organizes most corporate marketing groups. "Markets are conversations", the authors write, and those conversations are "getting smarter and faster than most companies". In their view, the lowly customer service rep wields far more power and influence in today's marketplace than the well-oiled front office PR machine.

The Cluetrain Manifesto began as a Web site (www.cluetrain.com) in 1999 when the authors, who have worked variously at IBM, Sun Microsystems, the Linux Journal and NPR, posted 95 theses that pronounced what they felt was the new reality of the networked marketplace. For example, thesis no.2: "Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors"; thesis no.20: "Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing. At them"; thesis no. 62: "Markets do not want to talk to flacks and hucksters. They want to participate in the conversations going on behind the corporate firewall"; thesis no. 74: "We are immune to advertising. Just forget it". The book enlarges on these themes through seven essays filled with dozens of stories and observations about how business gets done in America and how the Internet will change it all. While Cluetrain will strike many as loud and over the top, the message itself remains quite relevant and unique. This book is for anyone interested in the Internet and e-commerce, and is especially important for those businesses struggling to navigate the topography of the wired marketplace. All aboard! --Harry C. Edwards,Amazon.com

Review
More Reviews (As if you needed any more encourgement to read this book!)  "These roublemakers are going to get what they deserve - a hug and enthusiastic following." Esther Dyson, Chairman, EDventure Holdings  "Should be read cover to cover before anyone embarks on an online venture." Internet Works, March 2003 "What if the real attraction of the Internet is not its cutting-edge bells and whistles or any of the advanced technology that underlies its pipes and wires? Thanks to the Web, the people who are the market are telling one another the truth, in their own voices, even if business isn't paying attention. "The Cluetrain Manifesto is the absolutely brilliant creation of four marketing gurus who have renounced marketing-as-usual." - Thomas Petzinger, JR., The Wall Street Journal  The Cluetrain Manifesto is a wake-up call to the corporate status quo. It presents a stunning tapestry of anecdotes, object lessons, parodies, war stories and suggestions, all aimed at illustrating what it will take to survive and prosper in the fast-forward world on the wire. "If you don't think you need this book to better understand your market - that's your second mistake" - Seth Godin (author of Permission Marketing)  Campaign Magazine August 2001 "Consumers are hitting back at uncaring and insensitive corporate cultures, and marketers who are worried about the effect on their brand's image could do worse than look to the Manifesto for some guidance."  "The Cluetrain Manifesto highlights a growing sensitivity to the authenticity of brands and the meaninglessness of advertising products as different to what they really are......The Manifesto has made businesses realise that building relationships with customers is the name of the game. Without genuine dialogue you're dead."  "The real test of the Cluetrain's impact though, will be its effect on marketing strategy. And already observers believe we're starting to see Cluetrain influences in recent high-profile work. Take Fallon's advertising for Skoda, which built on the premise that Skoda cars were perceived as having about as much style and engineering finesse as a skip....."  "Such changes in strategy do to a certain extent reflect its preachings..."  "Until big brands embrace more of the Cluetrain thinking, the anti-capitalist rioters might just have a point."

Synopsis
Markets are conversations. Talk is cheap. Silence is fatal. "You must read the Cluetrain Manifest. So: read it , inhale it. If it pisses you off...GREAT" Tom Peters What if the real power of the Web lay not in the technology behind it, but in the profound changes it brings to the way people interact with business? And what if these changes were altering the nature of your company as profoundly as they have changed your markets? With language as sharp and compelling as its observations. www.cluetrain.com burst unexpectedly onto the scene with 95 Theses to ignite a vibrant and viral conversation, making hash of corporate assumptions about the nature of online business. Provocative, outrageous and wickedly smart, the manifesto has challenged executives from Global 1000 companies to sign-on or risk missing a genuine revolution. Expanding on ideas and insights first nailed up on the Web. The Cluetrain Manifesto both signals and explores a sea change already nearing flood tide in today's wired world. Through the Internet, people are discovering new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a result, markets are getting smarter than most companies. Whether management understands it or not, networked employees are an integral part of these borderless conversations. Today, customers and employees are communicating with each other in language that is natural, open, direct and often funny. Companies that aren't engaging in them are missing an unprecedented opportunity. A rich tapestry of anecdotes, object lessons, parodies, insights and predictions. The Cluetrain Manifesto illustrates how the Internet has radically reframed the "immutable laws" of business - and what business needs to know to weather the seismic aftershocks. "When people in networked markets can get faster and smarter information from one another than from the companies they do business with, it may be time to close shop. Or, maybe it's just time to get on The Cluetrain and fully understand that your customers are living, breathing creatures who want one-to-one relationships with your company, not just one-way rhetoric." Don Peppers, co-founder of Peppers and Rogers Group, and co-author of The One to One "For every consumer-products company wondering why its internet marketing doesn't seem to be working" Business Week "The most important business book since in Search of Excellence. Get a clue. Read the book"Information Week..." """ Most marketing campaigns are based on the fear that the market might see what's really going on isnide the company. Sound familiar? If it does then you've already come across the Cluetrain Manifesto...If you haven't already then you should make it your business to do so...Until big brands embrace more of the Cluetrain thinking, the anti-capitalist rioters might just have a point."" " "Campaign, August 2001"

Customer Reviews

Great fun, and useful too
I got hold of the US edition hardback of this a year or so ago, and finally got round to reading it while on holiday earlier this year. Great fun and light to read, the Manifesto offers some valuable and obvious truths about the impact of the internet on us as consumers, employees and businesspeople. As someone who works with the web on a daily basis and uses it as a communications tool, I found the book stimulating and thought provoking. some great ideas to take and develop into programmes within your business.
The book did ramble on occasions, though, and could have benefitted from more stringent editing. As it is, the structure of the book, with multiple authors, has given rise to a fair amount of repetition. This can be a good thing in order to drive vital points home, but they do overcook it somewhat.
Overall though, well worth the effort, and if you are in business you should have read this book, as it offers a simple and direct way to use the net to create and enhance those all important conversations with your market.

Packed With Knowledge!
The Cluetrain Manifesto was one of the seminal books of the dot.com bubble era, but reading it now is like waking with a hangover and looking at all of the empty bottles, each of which seemed like a great idea at the time. The Internet changed everything, all right. Those who can bite back the irony long enough to see the big picture and keep reading will find some valuable practical advice on using the now-not-so-new-technology of the Web to do business more effectively. We recommend this pivotal book for the sake of your sense of perspective (or to give you a critically necessary background if you are too young to remember when Amazon was just a river.)

Useful Examples of How to Build Trust Consciously
I had trouble rating this book. While I agree with a large percentage of what the book has to say, I also felt that the authors did not address the full extent of the issues they are raising. In addition, the book is organized like a cross between a Web site bulletin board and a series of monologues with Internet examples. As a result, the book has little internal structure, is much more repetitive than necessary, and creates a lot of energy without successfully channeling that energy.

Here's my rating scheme. 5 stars for useful thoughts. 3 stars for being incomplete in discussion. 1 star for writing style and organization.

Nevertheless, I do recommend you read the book. It strikes hard and relatively effectively at the kind of unemotional, dissociated, everyone-look- out-for-number-one thinking that amoral executives can be guilty of. Unfortunately, the book also slams the methods along with the lack of trustworthy purposes. For example, anything aimed at the subconscious mind gets condemned in this book. Unfortunately, one can communicate better by addressing both the conscious and the subconscious mind at the same time (that is what branding is all about). The Cluetrain authors seem to think that all subconscious communications cannot be trusted. I agree that they have to be watched carefully, or influence can be smuggled into our lives that doesn't belong there.

The best part of the book is its many ways of communicating how trust can be developed. The Internet isn't really going to develop properly until levels of trust among individuals and companies can be expanded, based on proper skepticism about the possible hidden agendas. Extended conversation is certainly a great help in this regard. Reputation is another way. Certification by some external process is yet another way. I felt that the authors lacked openness to other ways that trust can be built. For example, I suspect that when most of us are using video on the Internet, our ability to see the other person will give us many more clues about how much we can trust what is going on.

The authors make a great case for less constrained communication. Obviously, with more sources and information, understanding will develop faster. Also, we will be more interested in communicating with people than with very polished messages. The work on complexity science and chaos theory could have been successfully invoked here but were not.

The biggest missing element of this book is what we as individuals (both as consumers and employees) should be doing differently to create this environment of increased trust through communication. That would have made more sense than aiming the writing and the original manifesto at those who are communications challenged.

If you like the ideas in this book, I recommend that you consider other books that will give you guidance on how to implement the concepts behind the manifesto. The Soul at Work is very good on the subject of trust building. Simplicity is a fine source of ideas for how to get rid of obstacles between people.

In the meantime, do read and enjoy this book in the spirit of the untamed Internet.