Slides from a talk titled The Intention Economy, given as a keynote at MinneWebCon in Minnesota on 6 April 2009

1. The Intention Economy:quot;
What Happens Whenquot;
Customers Get Real Power
6 April 2008, MinneWebCon
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2. Case #1: The Ballad of Mona Shaw
• 13 August 2007: Comcast fails to show
up for an install
• 15 August: Comcast comes, fails to
finish the job, cuts off service
• 17 August: Mona & hubby visit
Comcast, get told to sit outside — while
everybody leaves
• 20 August: Mona takes her hammer to
Comcast and trashes the place.
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3. Case #2 Rob Beschizza vs. Comcast
• InWired on 8 January 2008, Rob writes,
“Comcast CEO Roberts Pitches CES on 100
Mbps Cable and Project Infinity”
• InWired on 25 January 2008, Rob writes,
“Comcast, Please Stop Bugging Me For
Money I Don't Owe You”
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4. Mona & Rob have the same
problem, and it isn’t Comcast.
It’s that they’re both coming from subordinate positions.
It’s a problem we all have. Even now, in 2009.
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5. Consider the online shopping
“experience”
Doc’s wife, in 1996:
“Why can’t I take my shopping cart from one site to another?”
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6. Consider “Terms of ‘Service’” that
also haven’t changed since 1996:
You agree we aren't liable for annoying interruptions caused by you; or a third party, buildings, hills, network
congestion, rye whiskey falling sickness or unexpected acts of God or man, and will save harmless rotary
lyrfmstrdl detections of bargas overload prevention, or in the event of random siding management retrenchments,
or Elvis leaving the building. Unattended overseas submissions in saved mail hazard functions will be subject to
bad weather or sneeze funneling through contractor felch reform blister pack truncation, or for the duration of the
remaining unintended contractual subsequent lost or expired obligations, except in the state of Michigan at night.
We also save ourselves and close relatives harmless from anything we don't control; including clear weather and
oddball acts of random gods. You also agree we are not liable for missed garments, body parts, or voice mails,
even if you have saved them. Nothing we say or mumble here is trustworthy or true, or meant for any purpose
other than to feed the fears of our legal department, which has no other reason to live. Whether for reasons of
drugs, hormones, gas or mood, we may terminate this agreement with cheeful impunity, and there’s not a damn
thing you can do about it.
Accept.
Why even bother reading something you have to accept,
and which give all advantages to the seller?
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7. What’s broken online is nowquot;
a model for brick & mortar business
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8. Loyalty cardsquot;
are the Green Stamps of our time.
What’s broken online is that you have to become a “member” and “sign in”
to buy anything.
In the old brick & mortar world you didn’t have to do that.
Now you do. With too few exceptions.
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9. There are three reasonsquot;
we shop at Trader Joe’s.
Good food.
No loyalty cards.
No coupons.
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10. There are reasons why loyalty programs
make sense — at least to themselves.
“Personalization.”
“Better data collection.”
“Increasing switching
costs.”
But it’s still a big PITA.
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11. Case in point: the Harvard Coop
Nice place. Loved shopping there.
Until I got tired of paying +10% for not belonging.
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12. Joining any loyalty programquot;
is a pain in the butt.
I failed the first few times I tried filling it out.
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13. Now I’m a member. Which
means I have to care about this:
Why should I have to
fill all this junk out?
… over and over, for
every “relationship”?
Because they aren’t my
“relationshps.”
They’re my data in
somebody else’s base.
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14. Another failure:quot;
Donating money to WMBR.
What I like
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15. How? Where?
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16. Umm…
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17. So, how about…
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18. Okay, I give up.
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19. And another: WUMB
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20. You are what you can’t eat.
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21. Aye, we hardly knew ye.
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22. The problem in all these cases is
Customer Relationship Management
It’s not really about relating.
It’s about marketing. It’s to you, not with you.
22

23. CRM is a $12 Billion business…
… that doesn’t work.
Except by its own metrics.
Which barely include you.
Which is why Mona obeyed Howard Beale.
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24. The problem is that most big business still
thinks the best customer is a captive one.
That’s why they “acquire,” “manage,” “control” and otherwise
“own” creatures they call “consumers.”
And that’s why…
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25. A “free market” is stillquot;
“your choice of captor.”
Even though the Net is now in the middle of everything.
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26. In the future a free customer will prove
more valuable than a captive one.
But how do we get there?
If proof is in the pudding…
What do we need to bake?
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27. We need to bake up Vendor
Relationship Management
That’s how each of us manages relations with them…
at least as well as they think they’re relating to us.
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28. VRM is the reciprocal of CRM.
VRM
CRM
It will provide ways for customers to drive vendors...
And not just to be driven by them.
With VRM we can relate for real.
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29. VRM is an open source project.
There are already over hall a million open source code
bases out there to work with.
We’re using some of those, and making a few more.
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30. We have an activequot;
and growing community
— with hotbeds in Europe & North America
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31. 31

32. With VRM, the individual is the point of
integration for his or her own data.
… and the point of origination for what’s done with it.
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33. Here is somequot;
of what we want VRM to do.
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34. Manage our own health care data.
This is a tall order, and very long term.
But there are some great people working on, for example,
personal health records (PHRs).
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35. Issue a “personal RFP”quot;
to whole markets, on the fly.
For example, send a message saying you need a 200w 220->110
converter
in Amsterdam on a Sunday afternoon…
— without giving any more than the required information.
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36. Assert useful Terms of Service.
That are ours instead of theirs.
You agree we aren't liable for annoying interruptions caused by you; or a third party, buildings, hills, network
congestion, rye whiskey falling sickness or unexpected acts of God or man, and will save harmless rotary
lyrfmstrdl detections of bargas overload prevention, or in the event of random siding management retrenchments,
or Elvis leaving the building. Unattended overseas submissions in saved mail hazard functions will be subject to
bad weather or sneeze funneling through contractor felch reform blister pack truncation, or for the duration of the
remaining unintended contractual subsequent lost or expired obligations, except in the state of Michigan at night.
We also save ourselves and close relatives harmless from anything we don't control; including clear weather and
oddball acts of random gods. You also agree we are not liable for missed garments, body parts, or voice mails,
even if you have saved them. Nothing we say or mumble here is trustworthy or true, or meant for any purpose
other than to feed the fears of our legal department, which has no other reason to live. Whether for reasons of
drugs, hormones, gas or mood, we may terminate this agreement with cheeful impunity, and there’s not a damn
thing you can do about it.
Accept.
36

37. Have governance of and byquot;
— and not just for — the people
One example of GRM at work.
37

38. Create a new business modelquot;
for free media.
Free media include…
Non-commercial broadcasting
Blogs, podcasts
Music…
Anything that’s either free on purpose or too easy to “steal.”
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39. The VRM model is called PayChoice.
It will be based on the ability of individuals to…
pay as much as they want
for whatever they want
whenever they want
wherever they want
on their terms as well as those of sellers.
Here’s where we plan to see it first:
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40. VRM will inform CRM.
Listeners and viewers will bear their end of the
relationship burden with stations.
Relationship can be enlarged to mean far more, and
include far more, than “membership”.
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41. Relating will have its own symbol:
We call it the “r-button.”
It says,
“I want to pay…
what I want.” And/or,
“I want to relate…
on my terms…
and not just yours.”
“This is my code’s way
of letting your code know that.
Even if you’re not listening. Yet.”
Its one way VRM meets CRM.
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42. The r-buttonquot;
can represent different states:
For example…
Intention to buy (and/or to relate).
Intention to sell, but also to relate on
your (the buyer’s) terms, as well as
your own.
Existing relationship — which can be
viewed and unpacked on either side.
Among others. This is still wide open.
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43. Here are a few ways it might look:
(Note: These are old drafts.)
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44. Back to the title question:
What happens when customers get real power?
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45. Customers will get their own
pricing guns.
They won’t be able to price everything.
But the seller won’t be the only one holding these things.
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46. Customers and Vendors will
both get to wear matching rings.
Or magnets.
Whatever we call them, “relationship” will be a fact…
… rather than marketing jive.
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47. The Intention Economyquot;
will get real.
It will be based on what customers actually want.
Rather than the “attention economy” of guessing what
customers want.
… or “driving” customers to want stuff.
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48. The advertising bubblequot;
will burst.
No, advertising won’t go away. We’ll always need some.
It just won’t be the communications method of first
resort.
Or the only business model that comes to mind.
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49. Some perspective.
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50. 50

51. 51

52. Live Web
Ubiquity
Giant Zero
Graphical
browsers
RSS
ISPs
Open
source
Dunno
Early open
protocols
Web
TCP/IP
NOW
Whatever
Free
software
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
20XXs
2XXXs
XXXXs
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53. Let’s talk.
http://projectvrm.org
doc@searls.com
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