Us and Them
March 23rd, 2008 by Jeremy“The Net is more than just an interactive TV channel with troublesome users”. This great quote courtesy of Doc Searls (hat-tip Mr Arthur).
It’s already a hoary cliché that marketers and agencies have lost control of the conversation (assuming they had it in the first place). What’s also evident is that brand perception is something that consumers own, and that it’s shaped by their personal brand experiences, the opinions of their friends and family, their worldview, age, location, interests and social networks.
At the same time millions of troublesome users are taking advantage of the interactive TV channel to tell the world what they think. That might be problematic for the command-and-controllers out there but for the rest of us this joyous, clamorous democracy looks like a market we can do business in.
A key part of the solution is more consistent use of social media analysis to understand consumers better (much better). And not to hear the kind of stuff they spout in focus groups. If you listen (with the right tools), you’ll hear what they really think about you. Their real loves, hates, likes, dislikes, ideas, opinions and passions about you that they discuss with their networks online.
Lots of companies do this of course. But are they really listening (by which I mean are the right people listening)? And what do they do with the results? Do they take what they learn from consumers to improve their products and services? Do they just whack people with more advertising?
Marketers (and their agencies) have a choice (and it’s a pretty clear one). Do they think of marketing and advertising simply as a way to tell people about things they’re trying to sell? Or do they try to understand those people better – their attitudes and perceptions – so that products and services can be improved and marketing dollars can be spent actually helping people, entertaining them, engaging them with relevant content, providing support, help, advice and access?
I think the latter course can provide a bright future. It’s certainly the way we think here.
Tags: innovation, marketing, social marketing, strategy
