Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Under Armour: I Will What I Want

A new campaign by Under Armour tells a story many athletes and achievers know well -- resilience and dedication are our best allies in a world of conventions and comformity. Does this composite letter sound familiar to you? Dear Candidate, Than you for your application to our ballet academy. Unfortunately you have not been accepted. You lack the right feet, Achilles tendons, turnout, torso length, and bust. You have the wrong body for ballet and at 13 you are too old to be considered. Misty Copeland took it in leaps more than strides. Watch the video. [campaign site] +++ Valeria... Read more →

Promises Made, Promises Kept: the Power of Brand Alignment

The recent Gallup report on the State of the American Consumer#, much discussed due to the findings on social and influence (my thoughts on understanding social data), also highlights long term trends and changing habits that impact businesses and commerce. At the core of the protracted economic hardship many faced going into and after 2008 is the validation of a renewed attitude and evergreen truth: Consumers give more of their money to companies that have a strong brand promise and follow through on it. Delivering a consistent customer experience is the product of a consistently vigilant and internally aligned organization... Read more →

Kate Spade New York CMO on Building Brand Voice

Starting with a quote from one of my favorite movies, The Breakfast Club: [closing narration] Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us - in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain... ...and an athlete... ...and a basket case... ...a princess... ...and a criminal...... Read more →

29 Ways to Stay Creative

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo. Stay curious. +++ Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover the value of promises and its effect on relationships and culture. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. Book her to speak here. Read more →

Changing the Conversation

I've been reading more while on a completely offline vacation (remember those?) and came across this quote in David Leddick's excellent book I'm not for Everyone. Neither are You. He says in confrontation, never answer the way people expect you to. I would add, especially by email, which is not a conversation, even though it feels like one. When you are having a disagreement with someone, it is something like a tennis match. The ball goes back and forth over the net. You say one thing. The other person responds exactly as they are expected to. Nothing advances. No one... Read more →

Digital Trails, Technology Roles, and Feedback Loops

Making Sense: Digital Trails This Is How Your Financial Data Is Being Used to Serve You Ads Whether you like it or not. AdWeek: Everyone in advertising is buying exhaustive records of your purchases—all your purchases—and comparing them to your viewing habits so that they know which ads you saw and whether or not they changed your behavior. Where Online Services Go When They Die. The Atlantic: When any sizable online service disappears, a piece of our civilization's cultural fabric goes with it. In this case, the missing cultural repository is Prodigy, a consumer-oriented online service that launched in 1988... Read more →

Happy Birthday to Me

+ Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover the value of promises and its effect on relationships and culture. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. Book her to speak here. Read more →

When Science, Customer Service, and Human Subjects Research Collide

Two points of note on research about human subjects to provide better service experiences: “Social media platforms and the technology companies that produce our shared social playgrounds blur the boundaries between practice and research. They (we?) have to, in many cases, to improve the products that companies provide users. That’s no easy thing if you’re in the business of providing a social experience through your technology! But that does not exempt companies, any more than it exempts researchers, from extending respect, beneficence, and justice to individuals sharing their daily interactions with us. So we need to, collectively, rethink when “testing... Read more →

Warby Parker's CEO on Disruption and Consumer Experience

Almost one billion people worldwide lack access to glasses, which means that 15% of the world’s population cannot effectively learn or work. Neil Blumenthal co-founded Warby Parker# out of his apartment in Philadelphia in 2009-2010 to create an alternative to three problems: rising prices of glasses a mediocre customer experience low innovation in the sector In the process, he learned a thing or two about what makes a good business work (B Corporation) by designing a product and experience that together make the marketing built-in. They sold their first inventory in 3 weeks and had 20,000 people on their waiting... Read more →

Identity and the Internet

Google just announced# that it has dropped the real name restrictions it placed upon users of its Google+ social network. It is confusing to people when policies or rule change without a clear understanding of the impact on what is possible that was not before. Because we are constantly negotiating sense-making (as in "what does this mean to me"?) with next steps (as in "what I should do"), this change in policy prompts a reflection on the nature of identity on the Internet. So I went back to my notes from a post written more than three years ago by... Read more →