All about everyonea blog about engagement

The quiet revolution: Part one

One of the things that really interests me is how changes in the way we communicate effect changes in the way we do things, especially with regard to the way we behave in a capitalist, consumer-driven culture.

In the first of two posts examining how our relationship with brands is changing, I want to look at how the way we consume is intrinsically tied to the way we communicate and how current changes in the way we communicate is revolutionising how brands behave. In the second of these posts, I will look at emergent trends in digital engagement and suggest new ways in which brands can return value from engaging with people, that will be mutually beneficial to them and us.

At the moment, a one-to-many approach to communication (advertising), to sell products or services, is still the dominant form of brand communication. Also, most brand engagement is brand-led and brand-controlled. The emergence of multi-participant (many-to-many) forms of communication, has led to what is now becoming apparent as something of an evolution for brand engagement and quite possibly the extinction of traditional forms of one-to-many forms of brand-to consumer communication.

As consumers, we have flocked to digital media, moving away from papers, magazines, television and radio, towards mobiles, social networks, the web. Brands have had little option but to follow us. With no us there is no them. And as brands open the doors to their bright, shiny new shops in their new socially networked neighbourhoods, they are quickly realising they can no longer close the door. In-fact, the door is disappearing altogether.

If consumers now have a greater stake in the process of how they consume, brands need to start seeing consumers as within their business rather than outside of it because, like it or not, that is going to be an increasing expectation. Brands need to start to see engagement with them as more than just a potential sale.

There is a fundamental shift taking place in the way brands and consumers behave together. As brands strive to become more connected to us, they are knowingly or not creating a relationship that has the very real potential for revolutionising what brands are.  As brands open up more and more connections between them and us, the border between them and us becomes increasingly blurred. Brands are making themselves more transparent.  The really interesting thing is that, as brands become more open to us, we increasingly become more influential to their development, to what they do. This change is sociological in nature but technologically driven. The fact that brands are increasingly entering into direct connections with consumers means that consumers increasingly have a say in what brands do, how they develop. Conversations are also open. Brands cannot control what you are going to say, but they will certainly be listening and if they wish to be successful, they will be responding, with change. Consumers have never before been so close and so potentially influential to brands than they are now.

Our greater connection to brands is also changing the means of production. Consumers and brands are beginning to collaborate increasingly, in the means of production. Social networks have demonstrated how we can be both producer and audience to. In digital media terms, we are now creating our own products, as well as others. Brands are not involved in a lot of this production, but they want our attention, so they are trying to be. This is creating another profound change in the way brands behave. Consumers are increasingly becoming involved in producing what brands say and so are increasingly having a say in what brands are.

But if this is, ultimately, a revolutionary phase for brands, it is a very quiet one. It’s as if brands are unaware of what they are entering into. By opening themselves up in an effort to get consumers to spend time with them, they are quite possibly getting more than they bargained for, but there’s no real grand debate going on. Not really any visible hand wringing, or skirmishes to be spoken of. It’s all very orderly. I wonder whether brands really do understand the extent of what may happen to their businesses, which could well mean a lot more than just rethinking marketing strategies.

Even if brands are enlightened to the impact their increasing connection with consumers will have on them, as we move out of an age of one-way brand-to-consumer communication into an age of always-on dialogue, how do brands continue to market their products? The interruption method of advertising is fast becoming a very blunt tool, in the face of a very much more diverse, yet ever more connected, consumer landscape.

When brands talk about ROI, they mean sales: How does this translate into sales for me? I would argue that the term ROI needs to be broadened, quite substantially. Now brands can generate value that is beneficial to their business but that doesn’t necessarily equate to a sale. Usually, word of mouth is thrown in at this point as the only other possible form of value a brand should consider. There are new currencies to be explored for brands when it comes to engaging with people.

Brands need to look beyond simply advertising toward more meaningful ways to engage with people. We now have the opportunity to find new, more mutually beneficial ways to engage with brands. To use the closer proximity of us to them, the fact that we can talk to each other, even create with each other, to evolve a more valuable means of exchange.

In the next post, I’ll explore emergent trends in digital engagement and look at new ways in which brands as, well as us, can return value from engaging more fully.

Tags: advertising, ar, arg, brands, communication, community, crowdsourcing, engagement, ideas, innovation, marketing, media, participation, socialmedia, technology, transmedia