I just came across this piece via a Twitter post by John Sviolka. The timing couldn't have been better.

I just reviewed a white paper for a friend whose company is trying to release and promote a new market-leading product. The white paper was actually a marketing brochure and the true thought leadership they exhibited to develop this product was buried somewhere in Section 5 of the “white paper.”

I like this concept of idea marketing. Its adoption could do wonders in the industry where I consult.

Best wishes,
Carol

Relationships and trust. You've really hit on the key themes for engaging in thought leadership–especially in the age of social media. Thanks for the thoughtful comments!

I'm thrilled that you work with such enlightened executives! Wish they could all be like that.

The only people I ever hear utter that phrase are execs, as in “We've got hot stuff nobody else has, and we need to demonstrate some thought leadership around it to amaze our friends and confound our enemies.”

Generally, that means that they are ready to invest in a marketing campaign on the topic. The first deliverable is usually content, and most of us marketers are able to steer that conversation ably.

I tell them that we can't deliberately lead other people's thought, but we can show that our thought happens to be in the lead.

Gartner’s definition of TLM is not only narrow (specifically the words “to create awareness of the outcome that your service can deliver”) but contradicts the advice they give in the same paper (e.g., TLM supporting “the brand over the long term”) and some of the examples of TLM they discuss.

Great assessment of the Garter piece. Personally, I ignored it as 'late to the party', but to say that Gartner should be dismissed or that their definition of TLM (I've been using that since 2006…can't see why that's new to them) should go unchallenged is short sighted, so thanks for putting your best thinking into this.

A few thoughts…for what they're worth.

1. I disagree 100% on 'idea marketing vs. thought leadership marketing'. I'm frankly not sold on thought leadership marketing, but I've tested many of the terms (edu-marketing, knowledge marketing, value-forward market, TLM, IM, and so on) and TLM is what resonates and I'm not convinced yet that IM is a better descriptor of what the rest of your blog post advocates we should be doing in this space of thought leadership marketing. I personally don't feel that idea marketing really captures the full scope of the idea. IMHO, all marketing stems from ideas (as does all innovation) and to give the lowly (though powerful) concept of the 'idea' the keyword that we're going to hang out hat on seems…a bit empty.

2. The Gartner definition is simplistic. Say nothing for mapping content to the sale cycle, it's “giving information” to “stimulate demand” minimizes that TLM/IM really does for an organization. It also discounts the element of culture, content creation (marketer as publisher) and enterprise expression of subject matter expertise… Why they bothered to release this press release is beyond me. It added no value to furthering the conversation on TLM save for getting us fired up against it…

3. When I first say your 'thought leadership is dead' title, it struck me as coming from the crowd (which I know you're not from) of “oh, yeah, more buzzwords…heard it too much…please stop the buzzwords…”. That view is one that I cringe when I see perpetuated, as I feel we have so far to go on thought leadership. Certainly it is an organized discipline, but I'll tell you, it's no different a concept than social media for my clients in that many of us are on the cusp of making headway here…and nowhere near mastery. To shoot down the concept as senseless buzzwords closes the mind to the real possibility of thought leadership and minimizes the often fundamental shift in how some organizations go to market. In my experience, thought leadership or an 'altruism before capitalism' approach to going to market…leading with ideas, information, value and education…in exchange for awareness, trust, credibility and ultimately commerce…is a transformational experience for some organizations (like ERP or Re-engineering was) that ultimately leads them to be more successful marketers.

Thanks again for taking on the Gartner piece. Always appreciate your insights!

Great point. Thought leadership is more than marketing. Indeed, marketing can’t pull it off unless the culture of the company is willing to take risks in letting its employees think ahead (and make mistakes) and be supported for doing so. Thanks!

Good point. There is usually a lag between idea formulation and adoption. But I think that marketers benefit from being ahead of their customers. It is better to have to do the work to pull customers along to the future than to respond to complaints from them about not moving fast enough. I think it’s also important to get validation from third-party sources (analysts, journalists, bloggers) for your ideas. This external validation shrinks the gap between formulation and adoption.