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03.26.09 People Make Decisions By Connecting With People  By James CherkoffThe infrastructure of the web is in constant flux, which is, of course, why it's so interesting. However, occasionally a new fault line appears, often over a long period of time, that changes the landscape in a more fundamental way. The new set of identity standards that have emerged in recent times, under the simple guise of reducing the number of log-ins you need to remember, are exactly that. At first, Open Social, Facebook Connect and Open ID seem to be basic devices to get around the annoyance of multiple usernames and passwords. Handy - but no big deal. However, in fact, they are solutions to one of the main sources of friction on the web. Currently, as you move from one social network to another, you may as well be moving between countries, setting up a new life in each. Meet new friends, send some postcards to contacts and family from the old country, and then check out the tourist trail. Hey, if you want to be a bit more glamorous in this new city, then you can be. Your old friends aren't there to ruin the illusion. My usual cocktail please! But the new identity standards are about to ruin this party. And once we've got over the shock, we'll all remember that it's your real friends and family that count. We'll quickly get used to the idea that our web-wide username and password are the mechanic to carry around not only our own identity, but also the relationships that we value. Be they personal, professional or purely social. In Facebook's language this is, of course, called your social graph. In plain English, it's your social circle. Great, but so what? As we all now know, when the fabric of the web is rewoven, the marketing industry better get knitting. But in this case, brands might do better to chuck out the old wardrobe and go shopping. Oh right, I hear you snortle into your latte. As if a handy log-in tool is going to affect the mighty brand titans. Well hold onto your almond croissant, because this isn't about your PC remembering your password, it's about the web seeing your life as a whole and understanding who you know and trust - and who you don't.
Sound spooky? It shouldn't. It's a natural extension of a trend that's been around for more than a decade. From the moment you played around with your first browser, you were agreeing to the web's implicit deal. Show me yours and I'll show you theirs. Searching for carrot cake recipes? Then let me show you this bakery shop. Looking for genealogy information? So are all these other people. The new identity standards are going to streamline this dynamic and add a powerful new engine. Possibly, so there's no need to search at all - ‘Hey, your buddy has a great new shortbread recipe, shall I put the ingredients on next week's shopping list?'. Yes, the issue for marketing folk is this. If the main way people make decisions is by connecting to the people they trust and making that information visible to the web, then that's the main way they will decide which brands they want to buy. And that world of brand tribes is just round the corner, thanks to the battle for identity standards currently being played out by Google, Facebook and the Open ID crew. As ever, this doesn't mean all the traditional marketing techniques are going to die. But brands will need to recognise there's not much point in targeting the individual with a branded message, if it's not in line with what's being delivered by their trust-powered grapevine. (And thus, the Herdmeister's world view becomes the everyday reality.) Your customers are already joined up and talking about you and your brand, but soon they won't have to even make the effort to find one other. The web will whisper in their ear with the latest news from friends and family. And then they'll go shopping. Comments
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