It is my great pleasure to present the interview below with Kelly Mooney, president and chief experience officer at Resource Interactive, as the latest installment of our Q&A series. In addition to her day job at Resource, Kelly is also a highly regarded speaker and author. Her latest book, The Open Brand, is the basis for today’s discussion. (Oh, and in her “free time” Kelly keeps a great blog at www.mooneythinks.com.)

Kelly, in your book “The Open Brand,” one of the themes we found particularly compelling is this notion of the “rise of the icitizen.” More and more consumers whose behavior and contributions to online communities would have made them “early adopters” just a year ago, are now part of the norm.

You highlight certain ways that these “icitizens” have come to expect different things from brands – that they expect to be involved in every stage of a product, from its creation to its promotion and beyond. Can you give us some examples of ways that brands can tap into the opportunity to engage consumers early on?

The first step is to support consumers’ chief web 2.0 behaviors—creating, sharing and influencing. It’s important to engage consumers wherever their passions lie, from software code tinkering to creating ratings and reviews to creating the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Web 2.0 is ultimately about using technology to enable, expand and catalyze marketing mixes that only get better with more cooks in the kitchen. Find their passions and meet them there. Enable their interactivity. Create ways your brand can make their goals (and lives) easier, more efficient. I realize it’s a new concept for marketers—but there’s a lot of buzz around marketing and customer service becoming one. Think about it—it’s pull marketing, not push.

The bar is being raised by innovators like Ning, FriendFeed, Jott, Loopt and Twitter, which are redefining cultural relevance, paving the way for brand co-creation, social networking, citizen journalism and more. Now all brands are expected to provide faster and more customizable experiences, more enhanced content, and more opportunities.

Consider tapping into your consumers as early as product development. Ask them for their feedback. Use it. Jeff Jarvis and Dell Hell may be the oldest example in the web-made world, but as a result, Dell created IdeaStorm, an entire online community dedicated to an open sharing of ideas and consumer feedback—ultimately ending in an ideal open branding scenario—it led to actual product improvement.

As for a more current example, I know of no better model for marketers than the Obama campaign. Regardless of what side of the red/blue coin you choose, the campaign is an example of open on all counts. The campaign homepage states emphatically that the goal is “ONE MILLION PEOPLE TO OWN THIS CAMPAIGN”. It’s a whole different mindset.
So what’s open about Obama?

• Information is given on-demand, via mobile, video, blog, social network, and by topic areas (not all or nothing)
• The campaign site is personal with so many videos, pictures and comments from real people that it gives the feeling of ownership outside the campaign itself.
• Barack Obama himself is a key engaging factor, but the campaign itself (not unlike other campaigns) is built on outside participation.
• Supporters aren’t just asked to tap their own networks, the campaign networks them too. For example, when someone makes a donation online, the campaign introduces them (with permission) to other supporters.

Have you ever considered having such an open dialogue with your consumers that they feel part of a larger ownership of your brand?

What about threats? What are the negative consequences of the increased emphasis on interaction between consumers and brands?

The real threat lies in inaction and ignorance. Brands are at risk of losing cultural relevance in the web-made world because they’re adopting trendy technologies without developing fresh insights. Even worse, some brands are simply waiting for this open season to pass, or at least to seem less chaotic, less of a threat to the completely choreographed success they’ve long enjoyed. Confronting accelerated change and the lack of appropriate resources to keep pace, marketers’ resistance to the brave new world is understandable.

Negative reviews and posts are a natural part of a fair and free-wheeling exchange with and among consumers, and have to remain visible, in all their bruising glory. Besides, they can be the source of the brand’s most valuable consumer insights, and can arguably build brand credibility over time more effectively than a set of purely (and suspiciously) positive reviews. But brands do have rights—and ways to keep the conversation constructive.

While some online advocates promote anonymous posting as a form of free speech, for brands, requiring mandatory log-in before contributing falls in the category of an ounce of prevention trumping a pound of cure, ultimately reducing the burden of liability for the brand or company hosting the user-generated content. Along with Terms & Conditions, mandatory log-in can help protect brands from renegade user behavior.

Brands can also steer consumers in a positive way, by prompting topics for discussion that can benefit the community at large, as well as the brand. What’s good for the engaged consumer is good for the brand. The people behind the prompting and listening occupy some of the newest positions in marketing—Toyota has a Corporate Manager of Consumer Generated Media—and some of the oldest but increasingly valued positions, including consumer affairs and public relations.
Ultimately, the community itself is the most effective tool for shaping and policing user-generated content. When empowered with reporting mechanisms, users freely report objectionable content to the proper authorities (often, the online policy enforcers employed by many large content sites). Users also vote online with simple “Was this information helpful?” feedback polls that can drive poorly ranked content to the bottom of the bin.

In short, transparent (but requisite) policies and log-ins and a self-policing user base can be the best tools for brands seeking to enable consumer- (or employee-) generated content without suffering collateral damage in the process.
But remember, the real risk for brands today is in not opening.

You present continuum from the “everyday” to the “elite” icitizens and talk about the opportunity for the everyday to “ascend” the ranks. Do brands play a role in facilitating this ascension? Is there any benefit to them in doing so?

Yes and yes. In a world where a talented nobody can rise to the top on American Idol, the masses are empowered as never before to generate, celebrate and venerate their crowd-made stars. And therein, naturally, lays an opportunity for marketers.

All icitizens are uniquely passionate and transparent about their expertise but some of these snowflakes soon snowball into larger-than-life personalities. Their notoriety achieves critical mass, and their influence gains momentum and reach in a way that is particular to the web.

Because of the trust and familiarity existing between everyday icitizens and their closer-knit networks, they are best leveraged for driving trial and purchase. Elite icitizens can be used to build broad awareness of a brand. They might even be positioned as the next face or voice of a brand, where brands can play a key role in their ascension to web celeb. Online ”auditions” and voting, coupled with studies of social media archetypes, can help identify an elite icitizen with plenty of network charisma and attributes highly compatible with the brand. The benefit is mutual—an icitizen climbs the ranks of internet fame while bringing greater awareness to the brand. Just be sure the icitizen’s profile—private and public—is compatible with that of your brand.

I realize the concept can be a bit overwhelming, so consider breaking it down into smaller steps:

How strategic is your brand’s relationship with the icitizenry? Do you have one at all?

Do any of the icitizenry’s main motivations (competence, collectivism, cultural change and celebrity) align with your consumer segments or consumer personas? If so, how are you marketing to this motivation?

Have you identified your icitizen truth tellers and tastemakers? Are you mining the blogosphere for the most influential and charismatic among them? Identifying the icitizens and spheres of influence most valuable to you as a marketer?

Do you know how and where your consumers interact with everyday and elite icitizens? Have you discovered their common traits, and learned how to capitalize on them?

How are elite icitizens influencing your consumers’ awareness of and opinions about your brand?

You also talk about the four motivations for icitizens (competence, collectivism, cultural change and celebrity) and challenge brands to align their customer segments and personas to these motivations. Have you seen any specific examples of merchandisers doing this particularly well on their e-commerce Web sites?

Known for their creativity (not just in their clothing), Free People isintroducing its shoppers to Jaime, a brand fan who works at the Ardmore, PA store. The site offers an interview with Jaime, a list of her favorite products, blog entries, video, and 28 product reviews (her screen name is FPJaime806 and her entries are also denoted as “fp employee”).I love this apropos approach to engagement. Leveraging the authentic passion of a member of the Free People family, the brand provides relevant emotional experiences that are inspiring, entertaining and contextual. Wonder if she’ll boost conversion online as well as she does off?

(Full disclosure, Free People is a long-standing ATG customer.)

Victoria’s Secret PINK is another great example. The brand held an open contest call for students to spend their summer as an intern at PINK’s home office, announcing the winners on their site. PINK has even taken the love triangle offline, by meeting its customers at their point of passion—on college campuses nationwide. Not only did the brand partner with universities to create an exclusive collegiate collection, PINK also plans to hire brand ambassadors at 15 campuses. Aspiring ambassadors submitted their resumes, and the chosen girls will go through a training program before promoting PINK on campus. They’ll also provide strategic insights, contribute their ideas—ultimately influencing the brand’s overall strategy for seasons to come.