It’s All About Me
Since I was young, I’ve always had an interest in marketing. Specifically, how brands relate to people and how they can influence culture. I’ve written numerous papers on this throughout my academic career and really believe that for brands to be successful, they must speak to people as another person, not just a “enterprise.” Kevin Roberts has talked about this in his fabulous read, Lovemarks. Reinier Evers has written about this in his Trendwatching.com newsletter.
I subscribe to the notion of the YOUniverse (thanks Reinier). I couldn’t agree with it any more. The universe is all about the consumer – with the consumer front and center… the way it ought to be. Today, an article came out in the International Herald talking about how Buyers Want It To Be All About ‘Me”. My question – why shouldn’t it be all about the buyers?Â
I tried to really bring this notion about the YOUniverse to the world when I launched MyPhotoAlbum.com thru FortuneCity.com. As the founder/Product Manager of MyPhotoAlbum, I realized that all our “competitors” were capitalizing on printing photographs…why not create a photoalbum that users can update/upload and share – and customize it personally at the same time. When you think about it, every single photo album is different. Why should our online photo albums deviate from this? It’s all about customization.
Just look at MySpace. I’ve got a few friends on MySpace who have customized their profiles to an extreme. It’s unbelievable what people will do to customize and exclusify (is that a word?) themselves. Why shouldn’t this world be all about me? When corporations can recognize this – they will capitalize on consumers and allow for consumers to drive their product lines and lifecycles…not the other way around.
Hello Darren!
You might want to check out this article (if you haven’t done so already):
http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/MASTERoftheYOUNIVERSE.htm
It’s a very interesting take on modern communication technology as the main catalysor of consumer-centricism.
I absolutely agree with you on the fact that corporations should recognize consumer empowerment as a notion, be able to measure it, and leverage their product lines based on their assessment of this measure.
However, we still lack efficient tools of measuring, and more importantly, the notion of understanding of the consumer as an individual – in opposition to “consumer as a mass” – is still in its infancy.
Currently, measuring consumer behavior will most likely yield results in terms of market segmentation. From there, we’re able to predict generalistic outcomes of possible consumer behavior.
But ultimately, is this act of measuring a valid act? In this present day of democratization of communication technology, does market segmentation based on age, demographics or gender really mean anything? How can we hope to efficiently reach the consumer as an individual? Know about his/her personal preferences and interests?
(And this might bring a more ethical debate on “mind reading” as an modern advertising technique…)
In order to ultimately move product, the current trend is to have the user “experience the brand”. And indeed, it’s ultimately about creating a YOUniverse (it can be big, it can be small) in which the consumer experiences content that indirectly links him with brand personality.
The current marketing trends, such as experiencial advertising, and branded content creation, are aimed at using consumer-centric methods to move brand and/or product.
I think that in this new era of empowerement through creativity, the grand winners of brand development will be those who grasped these notions.
Hello Darren!
You might want to check out this article (if you haven’t done so already):
http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/MASTERoftheYOUNIVERSE.htm
It’s a very interesting take on modern communication technology as the main catalysor of consumer-centricism.
I absolutely agree with you on the fact that corporations should recognize consumer empowerment as a notion, be able to measure it, and leverage their product lines based on their assessment of this measure.
However, we still lack efficient tools of measuring, and more importantly, the notion of understanding of the consumer as an individual – in opposition to “consumer as a mass” – is still in its infancy.
Currently, measuring consumer behavior will most likely yield results in terms of market segmentation. From there, we’re able to predict generalistic outcomes of possible consumer behavior.
But ultimately, is this act of measuring a valid act? In this present day of democratization of communication technology, does market segmentation based on age, demographics or gender really mean anything? How can we hope to efficiently reach the consumer as an individual? Know about his/her personal preferences and interests?
(And this might bring a more ethical debate on “mind reading” as an modern advertising technique…)
In order to ultimately move product, the current trend is to have the user “experience the brand”. And indeed, it’s ultimately about creating a YOUniverse (it can be big, it can be small) in which the consumer experiences content that indirectly links him with brand personality.
The current marketing trends, such as experiencial advertising, and branded content creation, are aimed at using consumer-centric methods to move brand and/or product.
I think that in this new era of empowerement through creativity, the grand winners of brand development will be those who grasped these notions.