Although he is primarily talking about branding in regards to selling to consumers, any company interested in building momentum in a post-advertising world should consider adapting this strategy. It appears that the idea of the necessity of branding is waining. So what replaces it? Simple – sophisticated, personalized and most of all, two-way, interaction with customers. Listening to customers, and incorporating what they say back into your products, services, and organizational structure. Through this dialog, align the organization with what the market wants. Technology has only recently made this possible.

A couple days ago, I blogged about why I think it’s neat-o for enterprises to try to open a dialog with their customers. In my opinion, progressive organizations that talk to (and listen) to their customers will get paid back by fervent communities that support and advocate their products. Most of the enterprise hasn’t yet realized this quite yet. But, a tremendous advantage could certainly stand to be had by say, a consulting company, that was brash enough to start creating a dialog with clients. A way to get started would to build a public, client-driven social network, blog or wiki.

Combine this strategy with the principals of open, transparent organizations – such as open source methodologies, and you have the outline of a model for the future of professional service organizations.

[Umar Haquie post via Atlassian's Jeff Walker, who seems to share my taste in WordPress themes.]