There is a Marketing Revolution taking place, as profound as the Arab Spring Revolution or the Occupy Wall Street. It is not making the daily news on BBC & CNN but it is being driven by the same force that drive its more popular sisters.
This force is the technology that allows the man in the street to talk back. The vegetable vendor can strike back. He has a voice. The silence is broken, the centre cannot hold, noise is everywhere. Once upon a time the customer was silent, she just looked, listened and complied, no more.
The customer is speaking and brand owners have to listen. She uses Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Online Communities and Forums to express her delight or dissatisfaction. Its no longer a one way communication, it is a conversation.
Brands are no longer the sole possession of its owners and managers, its also owned by its customers. Customers decide how they will use them, how they will be useful to their lives. She will twist them to serve her purpose and when they are no longer valuable she will discard them and she will tell her friends that she has discarded it.
In this New Marketing Revolution even the word 'Marketing' sounds perverse, since it has become to be known as manipulation, slight of hand, do what I tell you and you will be happy. Probably a better word now is Service, Customer Service. Brands now have to provide value, service, utility. The best brands do that, Apple, Google and Amazon are valuable because they provide utility, they empower the customer. Its no longer a brilliant advert, though if you provide value and utility that will most certainly help, but that is not the starting point. The starting point is 'How can I make the brand experience Memorable, Useful of value to the Customer?'
Isn't this the same that the young revolutionaries are asking of their Governments? Welcome to the New Marketing Revolution.
