The customer is really in charge? Part III

Posted on April 4, 2007 | Permalink

By Lane Casteix

If you have been following my series of posts here and here on how the marketing paradigm is shifting to favor the customer, here is another in that series. This time I present a more balanced view of the problem. Is the customer really in charge?

There is no doubt that the world of marketing is changing, and many of us aren't really sure what the next ten years or even next year will bring. What we do know is it will bring dramatic change driven by technology, the access to information, and the enablement of the consumer to have a voice in the process that goes well beyond his wallet and the decision to buy or not buy your products.

Thanks to the internet, the consumer has a public forum in which to say anything he wants about your company and your brands, be it good or bad. Furthermore, he can search for information about your products that go beyond what you have any control over. This process takes away a large amount of the control the brand owner once had over what was said about his brands.

In this article by Pete Blackshaw he admits that paradigm shift has taken place and is continuing to take place, but he charges that all is not lost, which I would agree with. It is not the end of the marketing world, but it does signal a major change in the marketing world that we as marketers and advertising professionals MUST be aware of and be prepared to adjust our strategy to get maximum effectiveness from it.

All is not lost - yet! But it will be if we fail to recognize the changes taking place and don't adjust to deal with them.

Stay tuned. There will be more said on this subject here in Intel.