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| 21st Century marketing - Consumer engagement is the key |
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| Sep 28, 2009 Published in content
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 A true 21st Century entrepreneur is one who stays true to his core business, but wraps it in social media to enable it to adapt to today's global, online world. Marketers today have to start with relationships.
Relationships between customers and their consumers are drastically changing, thanks to the new capabilities made possible by Web 2.0 and social media. Today’s customers expect to engage with brands instantaneously and satisfactorily. Gone are the days of live operators buried down the 1-800-line call tree.
Blogging and social media have given the consumer the power like never before. They are learning to sound their voices for everyone to hear. Sending a letter to an anonymous clerk at a random PO box address is ancient history. Customers today can sound their likes and dislikes at anytime across multiple media, uncensored. They need no high level connections, no direct contact with the media, to be heard.
This has given consumers the power to set the rules, which is a challenging model for most large corporations. Marketers have two options. Either take a new look at this relationship or prepare for divorce.
Getting to the heart of the consumer
In winning hearts and getting into the minds of consumer with powerful ideas, content plays a great role in consumer engagement. Most marketers not only accept the blogosphere as an emerging channel, but also recognize the pervasive presence and increasing influence of their authors, readers, and commentors.
Engagement marketing
With such changes taking place, conventional marketing has been replaced by engagement marketing, or marketing which aligns with the emotions of the consumers. It is aimed at creating goodwill by associating messages to larger issues that consumers really care about. This determines the consumer’s relationship with a brand.
The most striking example of successful engagement marketing was adopted by Barrack Obama in his Presidential campaign. As a result, he is the first President to govern with (with his Blackberry in hand) 13 million advocates at his fingertips. By using social media he converted everyday people into social and empowered volunteers.
Similarly the consumer wants to be heard, they want to have a voice and they respond to companies that respond to them. They may still be the audience forming the crowd. But instead of listening to the company speak, they’re listening to each other talk about the company.
This is the future of everything.
In line with this trend some major social network sites like Facebook have introduced engagement ads where users can leave comments on participating ads, add the brands to their list of "fan pages," and use them to send friends virtual gifts.
But in no way can such ads be a surefire solution for all brands and companies. A new company or a brand that's not a household name will still have to go through the long process of image building before being accepted by the consumer. Same will be the case for established companies that don't necessarily have public opinion on their side.
According to experts, brands that will fare best will be brands that have heavy lifestyle affinities, or cult followings. That goes for luxury brands, automakers, and clothing lines. It wouldn't apply to brands for which conversations tend to consist of complaints, like cell phone carriers and airlines. |
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