I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had clients try to dictate how a product is sold to a consumer, what the consumer needs to feel and how they need to react to something.
And as I patiently sit there and explain that they no longer make the rules you see a mixture of fear, a dawning of realisation that today in our connected world channels come together on behalf of consumers. As a brand or product they now to need to align themselves around the consumers.
We’ve always said that the customer knows best and therefore they are in control, the difference is that now, they have to mean it. The consumer really is in control. Not only that but it all happens in real-time, seasonality is becoming less relevant, clients need to focus on micro targeting to different consumer needs rather than enforcing a message dictated by them en mass.
With the internet bringing together consumers in so many ways, when will they realise the conversation is happening anyway?
The question I put back to them is do you want to be a part of it?
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So, so true. I deal with this kind of Luddite lunacy regularly. You can’t control the message anymore – businesses need to get used to it.
It’s tough isn’t getting the message across, especially with clients who have been used to the same way for a long time, a colleague used a good analogy the other day ‘they’re a bit like a tanker at full speed… hard to turn round!’
so true…
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