The consumer is in the driver’s seat more than ever before

The consumer has revolutionized consumption more than once since the Internet started to have such an important place in our lives. But more than ever, we feel that the consumer decides, and the winning organizations are those who provide him with tools so he can take control.

Surveys about tagging and recent tension about hotel criticisms have prompted this article.

Consumer generated revolution: the Toyota example

Toyota is an eloquent example that helps us visualize the power of the consumer in our ultra-connected society. I’m not talking about user-generated content, but the simple effect of giving users the tools that they need and trusting them. When online publishing arrived, two strategies were adopted in the car industry: making informational marketing sites identical to the paper brochures but with a bit of movement, or creating a real online tool offering added value. Évidemment, Toyota a choisi l’option de la valeur ajoutée et GM (et la majorité des autres) a choisi la première option. Mais pourquoi me direz-vous ? Parce que le prix posait problème, on ne voulait pas afficher un prix identique, car les marchands ne pourraient plus vendre à des prix exorbitants, plus cher que le prix affiché en ligne. On avait peur de gruger la marge bénéficiaire des détaillants.

Obviously Toyota chose the value-added option and GM (along with most others) chose the former option. But why, you ask? Because price was an issue – they didn’t want to post identical prices as then merchants would not be able to sell at exorbitant prices above those posted online. They were scared of ploughing through retailers’ profit margins. Toyota however, remains the one that we see with an air of transparency, intelligence and, more importantly, of listening to the consumer.

Let them say what they have to say!

Tagging is a good example of content that is easy for users to create, beneficial for the company and simple to put in place. The consumer wants to express themselves and participate – you just have to give them the tools to do so. In December 2006, 28% of Internet users had already added a tag to Web content. 7% did so every day [1]. It is also interesting to note that those who tag have higher revenues and are better educated. But what are they tagging? In fact, Internet users add keywords to several content types: photos, videos and music. In my opinion the ability to tag products that are available online is lacking or not properly used.

In the case of products available online, tagging has several advantages: it enables a category or characteristic that the company may not even know to be attached to a product. Then if another consumer uses this characteristic they can more easily find the product in question. Furthermore, when someone clicks on a tag on a site, they are given a list of all content tagged with that word. Hyper categorization lets consumers and search engines see a product from hundreds of perspectives. Tags help search engines make sense of content. In short, you can gain a lot by letting consumers categorize your website’s content.

Yes...but I will have to oversee their contributions…

It is true that you sometimes have to work to reap the benefits. But it must be said that, as in the case of hotel criticisms, if it is not talked about on your site, it will be talked about elsewhere. If, because of Internet users’ comments, you realize that product X is not worth all the fuss that the adverts said, then be happy, you could have learned that from returned goods!

For example, there is a blog where all unsatisfied Dell consumers meet, that was displayed before Dell’s website in search engines (with the word ‘dell’). I don’t know how they managed this emergency, but I can tell you that there was an emergency.

Your users are only waiting for you to act so that they can talk about your products and services, contribute to your content and your search engine position.

[1] Pew Internet and American Life Project, 31 January 2007