Corante Network contributor Johnnie Moore at Johnnie Moore's Weblog offers one of the first true builds on the "marketing as conversations" meme I've seen in a very long time.

Discussing a Hugh MacLeod post on the effect of blogging on Stormhoek wine sales, Johnnie cites the improv comedy principle of "letting yourself be changed" and writes:

"The value may not be the immediate impact of their [bloggers'] words on the market, but how the conversation changes the blogger. As Hugh says, it may be a mistake to focus on using blogs to sell things; it's more about creating real engagement - where you are changed too. And the thing about good conversations is that more goes on than just an exchange of information. Something more energising takes place. I think that's the deeper insight of the whole 'markets are conversations' meme."

The stumbling block to "markets as conversations" for most companies is that they see a world in which only one of the participants in the interaction is open to change. This would be the customer, by default -- they are the ones who are putting their money down and making room in their lives for your product. The company providing the product has historically not been open to change in the process.

"Markets as conversations" is more than just an endless topic of blog posts (like this one!) and, yes, conversations. If a company opens themselves to change, thus meeting the customers more or less where they are, the other change that often occurs is that customers buy more and companies sell more. These posts, especially Hugh's, offer more insight into this process.