The goal of establishing a 'relationship' is often cited as the goal or justification for many old and new online marketing techniques. The deservedly revered ClueTrain Manifesto famously said made 'conversations' another goal. I've never really stopped to think about the differences between them (which may explain a lot about me) but in marketing terms, this post about anonymity as it occurs in those two situations made me ponder just that distinction.

The world is a much better place when vendors and customers can engage in quick, reliable, secure, semi-anonymous transactions.

Explaining the remark on Rough Type, the author further said:

"semi-anonymous" was meant to indicate knowing enough about the customer so that the transaction can occur, e.g. you need to know that the customer's credit is good, but not that he's the guy who watches only three Netflix DVDs per year.

He is making a specific point about the distance a customer might want, which is a perspective marketers don't often consider when throwing these terms around.

Playing with the metaphor further, a conversation lasts only as long as it's mutually beneficial. A relationship almost always has periods, if not what seems like eternities, where that is clearly not true. So it's not surprising marketers want to establish relationships, but it's probably a lot more practical and realistic to focus on conversations first. Especially since a relationship of any kind that doesn't at least start with some good conversation is questionable to begin with.

There's a lot to be said against taking any of the marketing metaphors we use too literally, but the power of specific words, in practice, is undeniable. At the moment 'conversation marketing' is my favorite summary of the Cluetrain-and-beyond approach to creating customers. The links above brought that into a little clearer focus.

PS: I coincidentally ordered a copy of a book called 'Conversation Marketing' just two days ago (and I like their blog), and will report back as to how this sways my thinking.