The Next Engine: Beyond Campaign Thinking

One of the key internet trends we’ve been writing about here at the Next Engine has been the shift in the balance of power from companies to consumers. Across the board - and perhaps counter-intuitively - we’ve found that this shift can provide significant benefit to those companies who choose not the fight the inevitable.

Indeed the more that corporate strategists (be they designers, engineers, IT specialists or marketers) embrace the opportunity the web provides to interact, engage and co-create with people outside the corporation on a more or less level playing field, the greater the level of value realized for the company.

That’s also the major take-away from this McKinsey study. Across all kinds of industry sectors, and with all kinds of objectives in mind, companies, suppliers and consumers are behaving in new ways to create new value. And perhaps surprisingly consumer co-creators do not appear to be motivated primarily by financial reward. Rather McKinsey finds that they seek other benefits - community recognition being especially highly valued.

There are clear opportunities and implications here for marketers also. Providing a platform for consumers to engage with a brand in open forum, on a level playing field, with few or no restrictions and a genuine corporate commitment to listen and learn will yield new insights and new ideas that can be utilized to create value for the company. There are some great examples of this already in play.

And happily, as McKinsey finds, consumer participants find immense satisfaction in simply being heard and recognized as making a constructive difference - both by the company and their peers. As companies become more comfortable and reap tangible benefits from being more open, and as more consumers get comfortable with being participators and creators, this trend will soon reach a tipping-point.

Update: It’s not like consumers are shrinking violets