I said in my original top 10 list that, "Marketers will abandon their historic ‘command and control’ model of brand building in favor of a truly interactive dialogue with consumers. Recognizing that consumers now have the power to control how, when and where they interact with advertisers, brand marketers will continue to reinvent their approaches, putting the consumer in the driver’s seat and unleashing a tsunami of interactive campaigns across all media forms."
This was, without a doubt, the resounding theme emanating from our ANA Annual Conference in October 2006. In speeches by many of our presenters we heard that the power has shifted into the hands of those to whom we market our brands.
- Our keynote speaker, AG Lafley, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive, The Procter & Gamble Company, told us that “The consumer has been, is and always will be at the center of what we do. We have greater opportunity to move beyond transactions to relationships than ever before.”
- Russ Klein, President, Global Marketing, Strategy and Innovation, Burger King Corporation, spoke of “turning your brand over to the hands of consumers,” with their slogan, Have it Your Way, being their “global brand promise of empowerment.”
- Cammie Dunaway, CMO, Yahoo! described “Consumer 2.0” as someone who “has infinite choices always available on-demand.” She urged us to “flip the funnel, identifying and embracing core influencers with targeted messages to help you as you seek to acquire the masses.”
- Jim McDowell, Managing Director, MINI USA, BMW North America, showcased the lengths that their consumers have gone to in order to make MINIs their own. The car owners can design the paint jobs for their cars, the special features that can be added to their vehicles, and put together events designed specifically to showcase the uniqueness of their automobiles. Being a MINI owner has become a sort of cult-like club, which engenders incredible brand loyalty. Giving them the control to make their MINI as unique as they are has become a challenge to their consumers- and one of which they are taking full advantage.
Consumers are telling marketers, in droves, when, where and how they want to be targeted. They are creating their own ads, unprompted, and putting them on YouTube. They are creating false MySpace and Friendster profiles pretending to be your products, characters and celebrities. Heck, the consumer- or “you”- was even hailed as TIME’s Person of the Year for 2006. They have the power to be both brands’ loudest cheerleaders and evangelists, but also their most fierce critic.
In the April 2006 issue of ANA’s publication, The Advertiser, Stevie Benjamin, Media Director, Coors Brewing Company, wrote a case study entitled, “Connecting to the Consumer: Remembering Fundamentals But Embracing Change.” This is exceptional advice, as we don’t need to turn our backs on the tried and true methods of marketing, rather our role as advertisers in this new environment is clear: embrace change. Engage your consumers in as many different ways as possible, at as many different touch points as possible. In the article, Benjamin confesses to owning four portable content devices herself – two cellphones, one Blackberry and a video iPod. How many do you own? How many do you think your consumer does? How can you use these many, varied devices to reach out to them?
The final step is probably the hardest. Let the consumer respond, take their feedback and be ready, willing and able to tweak your plans accordingly. You will see quite quickly just how open today’s consumer is to being marketed to - as long as they are a part of it. No one “wants to be spoken to” any longer, they “want to be spoken with.”
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