Chatter Is Mightier Than The Sword

Monday November 19, 2007

Consider buying a product from a well-respected brand. Does your experience always live up to the brand promise? Now, if a brand doesn’t live up to your expectations, you have a mighty big soapbox to shout from. The social media revolution has exploded, and it's giving consumers unprecedented power.

Pre-revolution, disappointment with a product simply meant I stopped buying it. Or maybe I made a scene in the store. As a consumer, by God, I control the purse strings! This brand cares about me, right? Well, not so fast. Few companies translate their brand promise from the Candyland of paid advertising to the real consumer experience. Some, like Apple and Target, are getting it right. But I’ve never heard a McDonald’s patron leave the drive-through shouting, "I'm lovin' it!"

Individually, we could never stop buying enough to make a difference. But the revolution can. Feisty, opinionated and spontaneous, bloggers and other online voices are making a scene heard 'round the world.

This movement has ushered in the age of consumer empowerment. Everyone is a reporter, critic, disc jockey, commentator, minor celebrity or one hit wonder. Everyone matters now. Anyone can post a bad brand experience on a blog and watch the word spread like wildfire — destroying a reputation in a blazing minute. Organizations are learning from the well-publicized missteps of Dell and Wal-Mart. Good brands have noticed, and an honest-to-goodness change has empowered consumers to keep an eye on, well, everything and everybody.

Blogs, multiplying at a monthly rate of 20%, are growing and now number over 100 million strong. That's 100 million people who can say whatever they want about you, your company or anything else they please. And the conversation lives! We can agree or disagree, but it continues. We're addicted to the power, celebrity and anonymity provided by the Internet. Good brands are paying attention.

My colleague Cord Silverstein, director of Engagement Marketing at Capstrat, brings real perspective in his article, "Voice to The Voiceless," recently published in the book "The Age of Conversation".

Cord writes: "We are living in a spectacular time where technology has enabled anyone who wants their voice to be heard an opportunity to do so. People who once felt helpless and voiceless are now empowered. Our communications and conversations do not have the borders or boundaries they once had. In this Age of Conversation, we can communicate, touch and affect others in ways that in years past we could have only dreamt of."

He goes on to write, "What will define the Age of Conversation? We will. Millions of empowered voices expressing their own opinions, thoughts and experiences for everyone to see, hear and read."

Where will this revolution lead us? I believe more companies will devote energy and resources to matching their brand promises to their customer experience. Budgets for brand building will move from mass media to fulfilling the customer experience. Companies will pay closer attention to smaller market segmentation. You know, "the long tail" and all that. They will begin to pay attention to every customer interaction point.

There's a huge opportunity for organizations to promote their brand through employee marketing, training, social interaction, user experience and experiential design. They have to get the brand promise, personality and values right all the time. If they don't, we as consumers should call 'em out. Because customers have a newly strong voice: We're watching and we're intoxicated with power. Follow through on your brand promise — or we'll bust you.