CAPITALIZING – LEARN TO TAKE POWER OVER CONSUMERS!
The internet has been extraordinarily beneficial to people of all ages. It has provided the whole world with excellent information and communication possibilities. However, the internet has also initiated online shopping platforms that offer each and everything online, from groceries to classical music vinyls. These platforms have given rise to the smart shoppers community. These shoppers know exactly how to use digital media to gather information, to find compelling products and to speak to other consumers who have had firsthand experience with these products. They seem to love the fact that they do not have to communicate with marketing professionals who are hired to upsell a specific product. Using these shopping platforms, these shoppers make their own decisions thereby empowering consumers to understand their needs and wants better.
Many brands have noticed the importance of having an online marketing presence and have ventured out in branding their identities on the internet to get more business from there. Consumers have a better understanding of control over their demands because of more access to information, access to more e -commerce alternatives, simplified complete transactions, increasing communication between other consumers and increasing control over marketing contacts.
Owing to this wide spread demand, marketers must provide their customers exactly what they want, but there is an extent to which a brand must train themselves to suit audience needs. It is always beneficial to offer but also to supersede their expectations with a kick ass online contest or campaign to keep them interested and perpetually excited. Many consumers give positive, truthful feedback. Some of them would like to be rewarded while others would knowingly be over critical but not always must a marketer pay attention to these comments unless it comes from more than a certain percentage of people. If every brand would try and make each and every one of their customers happy, their target audience & life cycle of the brand would be affected adversely.
There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.
-Sam Walton
Products and services like airline and other travels, hotel bookings and food could easily be classified as consumer “empowering” and “easily accessible” online industries. In the case of online travel and airline bookings, research groups have always discussed as to how they should be in charge of their travel arrangements and try hard to imagine a positive reaction from the carrier if arrangements need to be altered. In the same manner, a convenience food brand could indicate attributes by offering consumers appropriate food without any effort. These food companies can define approachability by giving consumers the option to call and ask about nutritional or recipe queries. The USP is buried by the desire to appeal to the customer.
Even though every business is trying to be more accommodating, empowering and accessible, today’s consumers are still extremely distracted, fickle minded and always seeking for better quality. This may be partly because they are baffled by a huge selection of items to choose from and find it difficult to keep up with the constant flow of new products and services that come into the market from time to time. The complexity of the IDEAL 21st century life makes it difficult, even inappropriate, to be consistent. For example, more ten 60 % of the protesters at a demonstration, outside Nike Town outlets against the company’s use of under-age labor inside its outsourced manufacturing plants, sported Nike training shoes.
In the past decade, a post-modern user is especially pleased to play the corporate marketing tactics so as long as this game is played on his or her terms. The number of choices, competitions and news on the internet, has given immense power to consumers. However, companies need to identify and take appropriate action against this through their marketing operations, which should always stay connected to the lifestyle of those they are trying to reach. However, these companies must remember that these operations do not necessarily have to reflect only the fans targeted, a balance must be maintained. Statistics indicate that when consumer complaint, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it.
The complaining customer always represents a tremendous scope for more business.