Editorial Articles

How should brands engage in a way that is more equal and ultimately more effective?

Many organisations manage customer relations on their own terms rather than allowing the consumer to have any control. If this doesn’t strike you as democratic, you’re not alone. More and more consumers are realising that brand communication rarely benefits the customer. Consumers are no longer happy to be on the receiving end – they don’t want to be marketed at, but want to participate, share their view, complain, celebrate and understand. And if they don’t feel listened to, they’re ready to spread their views.

Twenty years ago if something was wrong with a product or service on the weekend, you’d wait to complain on Monday. Today, at the height of your frustration, you’ll voice an opinion online. As Generation Y (three times the size of Generation X) sources and shares information online without hesitation, there are greater opportunities for brands to listen, to respond and to interact with individuals. Yet some brands find the scrutiny of the informed, well-connected consumer uncomfortable and feel under attack by people discussing their products online. They close ranks and stop talking just when the conversation is really taking shape.

Brands build trust by being open with their customers, responding to criticism and being human. Technology can allow a greater degree of intimacy with individual customers but only if the business empowers its people to have conversations with customers – by phone, in person or online. A call centre full of people on Twitter reproducing the company line is as meaningless as an automated recording.

Brands need to monitor that view as it takes shape online and contribute their own comments, and this applies whether the brand is an FMCG or a local council. The Public sector has a responsibility to engage and inform its community but a local council can be a faceless giant. Successful brands, organisations and councils build trust by blending entertainment and utility information through experiences, providing additional, deliberate and appreciated value.

Technology and communication are integrated parts of everyday life enabling brands to be where their consumers are. Everywhere. Online, mobile or in person – if the experiences of dealing with an organisation are complimentary and all carry an openness and willingness to listen, the impression will be good and trust will develop.

When brands participate with their online audience there is an expectation for everything to be dealt with quickly. And the only way to do that is by empowering people to respond and interact rather than to broadcast brand messages and special offers. Digital democracy is about issues that need to be aired and voices that need to be heard rather than what brands want to say. The recent debate raging online about whether Apple should recall the iPhone 4 demonstrated that society’s first point of call is the internet when discussing product issues or suggesting a suitable corporate response. The days of a sternly-worded letter to the customer service director are a very distant memory. 

In the world of politics, democracy usually is a two-horse race. And some might say that brand products – Coke or Pepsi, Nike or Adidas – might mimic this with two dominant players and thousands of others holding niche positions and struggling to unseat the big boys. But digital democracy changes everything, allowing millions of brands the right, and the duty, to engage with their customers in a one to one fashion.

It’s time for marketing folk to stop broadcasting and start responding to individual needs – on the individual’s terms not the organisation’s. The interaction and information gained on both sides can only help. Nowadays, consumers buy a product – in 10 years time, consumers will be designing it.

Damian Ferrar
Head of Digital, Imagination