Be Primal: Voice, Humanity, and Customers as Us

I rarely read books cover to cover. And I certainly cherish my eight hours of sleep. But last night I finished The Republic of Tea at 3 a.m. (high reco from Seth Godin so it's been on my to-be-read list for a while). I'd rank it right up there with my other favorite book for entrepreneurs, The Monk and the Riddle by Randi Komisar. Funny, I met with Stowe Boyd today at the Konditorei Cafe immortalized in Komisar's book - which I haven't been to in two years.

The Republic of Tea is a very human, very Cluetrainy book. I absolutely loved it.

Life is everything, including business. Therefore, life is business, and business is life. In being a businessman, I find no license to do or be things I could not do or be as a man. It's that simple. The "business is business" mentality is a social sickness that chokes off the higher nature of human beings. It elevates being in business to a station higher than being human, and therefore is in its own time ultimately counterproductive if not to the business itself, then certainly to the businessman (or woman) who spreads the infection. - Mel Ziegler, The Republic of Tea

To communicate, we must go back to what is primal, the human voice.  - Nancy White

The book chronicles the private fax conversations (uh, it's 1990) between the two co-founders of the company of the same name, The Republic of Tea. With openness and transparency, they publish their correspondence and business plan in a book at the same time as their start-up launch. Mel Ziegler, also the founder of Banana Republic, in one missive writes:

This morning's SF Chronicle has the results of a poll. In the Bay Area, an astounding 44% of the population is drawn to mysticism and "New Age" practices, as opposed to traditional religions. "New Age" although well-intentioned, is full of a lot of charlatans and therefore I can't say it's my cup of tea. But the reason people are interested in things "New Age," let's not forget, is because of a primordial thirst.

Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice. - Cluetrain Manifesto

I like the idea of having a personal business with a visible personality. There's something charming and wonderful about "feeling" and sensing the human character behind the business. Leaves [co-founder Mel Zweiger was the Minister of Leaves], you are clearly the "voice" of the Republic. It seems to me that the challenge of this business will be to retain the personality  (and the clarity of the voice) as the organization grows beyond the founder(s). - Bill Rosenszweig, The Republic of Tea

Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors. - Cluetrain Manifesto

In a reply a question by Bill on 'demographics' (do our customers like to travel? what do they read? etc.), Mel replies:

You have fallen into a treacherous booby trap when you say "I also know that a lot of people are not "WE, the customer." [Bill and Mel are avid tea-drinkers.]

This is a trap into which many businesses fall. By definition, it creates a boundary between the business and its customers....

I say: Be the customer, not the seller. Approach business from the standpoint oof the customer's needs, not yours. And all else will follow.

What I mean is this: We are every person who drinks tea, or would drink tea if he only knew what tea held in store for him. We are even the customers we don't particularly relate to.

It's true that the customer I relate to will most likely understand my product better than the customer that I don't relate to, but if I try to relating to the latter, I'll do just that - try rather than relate. We're selling tea from an inner passion. Passion is something that everyone understands. To fuel that passion into slick messages intended to second-guess customers we can't relate to could have only one effect: Less respect for the customer, loss of dignity for ourselves.

By asking the wrong questions, you will get the wrong answers. So it's not "Do our customers like to read, travel, cook, retreat, laugh, reflect, etc?" That is approaching it as if the customer is not you.

The question is "Does tea heighten my awareness and enhance the experience of whatever I like to do?" - Mel Zweiger, The Republic of  Tea

Comments

[Troy Worman]

So many references to The Cluetrain Manifesto! I do need to reread that book. It seems like such a long time since it was published. Has it been that long?

[Nancy White]

Hey, Evelyn, you make me want to read the book (and I rarely read books cover to cover as well.)

I'm looking forward to meeting you at Blogher!