A business love triangle
The collaboration between consumers, companies and the Internet is shaping the future of business models. This love triangle, or more accurately, “ménages à trois” (without the sex) is unpredictable, tricky and risky but unlike more traditional romantic love triangles, this one is worth engaging in.
A review on the Internet was what led us to our special evening. The weather was warm enough that the rain couldn’t interrupt our anniversary plans. Tom had insisted we book in advance — to make sure we were going somewhere good enough to splurge our minuscule budget.
Despite being unseen from the street, the Spanish restaurant on Gertrude Street was overflowing with customers. The evening was delicious, worry-free and all due to a kind stranger from the platform social media had provided.
The adoption of social media has revolutionised the way business operates. The palpable conversation platform connects consumer with consumer and consumer with business — challenging consumers and businesses alike, to make sense of it all.
The Internet is breathing new life into the market economy; buzzing, without agenda, consent or constraint. While we often tend to focus on the negative effects of our love affair with our Internet connection — too much screen time, less conversation etc., there are some serious positives — particularly with regard to business entrepreneurship.
The rebirth of customer influence
Customer relationships and brand loyalty are imperative to the long turn success of any business regardless of the product or service. Unlike the limited influence available to pre-internet consumers, which was primarily through word of mouth between relatives, friends and colleagues — the chat of customer satisfaction has shifted from influencing 4 or 5 customers to 400 or 500 hundred (give or take).
One consumer’s experience, given their greater influence on a bigger pool of consumers, is more important than it has ever been. In fact, it can make or break a product or service given the right situation and exposure. This is customer empowerment as it has never been before. Companies can no longer get away with paying lip service to feedback or criticism.
If a consumer is left unsatisfied with a product or service or unable to get proper assistance — not only will they stop being a customer but are easily able, through the influence of social media, turn other potential or current customers away with a trending bad review — not necessarily in written form only — but by VOD, animation, photos…. and across multiple platforms.
For example, a post to Subway’s Facebook page attaching a picture of a “Subway Footlong” with a ruler next to it measuring only 11 inches — the post didn’t truly go viral until Subway actually responded. First Subway replied assuring its dedication to quality but then went on explaining that the term “Subway Footlong” is a registered trademark and not a measurement of length. This caused an outcry that led to many lawsuits and consequently a reputation not just for lack of product execution, but also Subway’s customer service method (hint: the customer is always right).
Social media now provides all of us with a platform to question, test, and view customer satisfaction from a wider audience. Fast travelling news of anything less than satisfactory can go viral or at best disseminate to a large segment of consumers. This causes businesses to act very quickly and/or work more efficiently or suffer the consequences of a negative review that could permanently destroy brand trust.
Previously, our business experience has been the traditional marketing communication paradigm and channel — whereby a high degree of the control was present amongst the firm and the focus was competition between brands — product orientation. The approach was primarily focussed on the product and how to sell it to the masses.
The future for business relationships
For business there has been a significant shift from product orientation to market orientation — where entrepreneurs focus on the needs and wants of the consumers and then deliver a product or service that satisfies those needs and wants. Novel!! You could ask why it took so long to deliver such an obvious business paradigm! Meeting customer performance expectations becomes priority and firms must increasingly learn to listen. It becomes essential that every individual customer is satisfied. But it is not all one way.
Market orientation also provides competitive marketing intelligence for business. Within social media firms can manipulate the two way platform to aid in research including observing customers, using the platform to talk to customers, asking them questions, answering questions, responding to service inquiries, customer satisfaction, updating employees and watching competitors and strategy. This is all done faster and more efficiently than ever before.
Further…
Some brands adopt personalities — they talk, relate and earn likability. Doritos Facebook page, for example, is dedicated to assisting consumers as much as humorously defending it against wounding reviews and/ or comments. For example, when a homophobic customer complained of Doritos’ LDGBT support — Doritos, simply shrugged it off, informed the consumer their Facebook account (where the comment had been placed) was also in support of LGBT. The action Doritos took made the brand look confident and committed, engaging consumers in a more personal relationship — revealing another layer of its brand identity.
Yes — make no mistake — we have given birth to the age where people have people-product relationships. Who doesn’t have an intimate bond with their favourite device, body product or brand of lingerie?
Moreover, Doritos taking a position on a key social issue creates a risky, but brave, bet that can either backfire through social media criticism or, if it succeeds, becomes more than the purchase of corn chips we know and salivate for — but the creation of a new loyal following.
Brand reputation is now the most important factor for long-term business success; there is no better way to ensure a brand’s reputation than to work alongside consumers instead of just for them. The consumer is not the only party to benefit from this digital sharing culture. Companies, alike, can embrace social media to achieve core business objectives that help grow company revenue, reduce cost and improve efficiencies and quality.
Uber is an example of a service that has taken advantage of the consumers influence on the market. It is one of the most successful, fastest-growing companies of the past couple of years and one of the most used apps, alongside Facebook. Now, Uber doesn’t produce a product and attempt to sell it — instead it instigated a business model where any consumer with a car and registration can participate — sign up, and not only provide a superior transportation service to other providers, but also earn a living along the way.
The business model based on “pure logistics” is also utilised by AIR bnb. This simply enables homeowners to rent out their vacant room or property on a short-term basis undercutting the hotel industry. The company takes a percentage, a commission, for setting up the platform for the exchange between property providers and customers. This new business model allows consumers to enjoy a superior and more cost effective service than hotels and taxis — it connects people with people, and is a direct result of the collaboration between business and consumers.
Uber takes customer and business relationships further. A rating system is included so that the consumer can rate their experience and driver and vice versa — the driver can rate the customer. And, random additional extra, when Uber was first starting up they had a cat option to accompany you on your journey (being a direct result of our obsession with pets and all those YouTube cat videos).
The online conversation platform facilitates two-way communication cooperating in real-time connections with existing and potential consumers. The timing, content and frequency of viral conversations occurring between consumers are out of the company’s control, which makes the seamless experience of the customer more valuable than ever.
The responsibilities of firms are to customise and work for the consumers’ convenience. In return, if the degree of engagement is strong, the company could be exponentially broadcasted — generating higher sales, customer satisfaction, product reputation and trust.
The partnership between consumer and business can be stretched further to products being advertised casually through the likes of popular or trending consumers with large social media followings. For example The Kardashian Empire can sell anything with their name on it — more often than not, we buy these products because, through their online social presence, we become loyal through a trending face. Unlike previous T.V. dominated commercials — personalised integration effectively targets particular consumers with a more exclusive communication channel, portraying an honest, friendly brand look.
Twitter, earlier this year, purchased a new agency “Niche” which matches web celebs with brands to enable businesses to better connect with their consumers on their level. Whether it is via Twitter, Vine, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or Youtube — it’s no longer about where businesses engage with us but how.
So, what is this modern relationship?
Like all love triangles — this newfound relationship between consumers, business and the Internet will have its ups and downs. It is complicated. But like all good relationships, authenticity, two-way communication and honesty will be critical to long-standing success. So, get ready to add products and businesses to your “friends” on Facebook (if you aren’t already doing it)!
