Are Consumers Still Consumers?
This article also appears on Huffington Post,
to read it there then simply click here!
I was classically trained to
think of my customers as consumers…consuming the products and services that I
offer to them. They not only consume the products literally into their bodies
or into their homes but also into their lives. It was put into my marketing
consciousness from my first days at Johnson & Johnson as a summer intern
during grad school. It’s been a part of me ever since.
But I’m beginning to think
that I have to change how I think.
Yes of course our consumers
consume our products and services. They brush their teeth with our toothpaste,
they drive their children to soccer practice in our cars, and they swallow our
medicine when they’re suffering from a health issue. They consume our products.
In the process, they interact
with our packaging, navigate around our websites, and shop off of our retail
displays. They also consume a wide range of information as they seek to consume
our products.
But with the advent of social
media, they do a lot more than just consume our products.
They participate in our
brand.
When we post a picture on
Facebook, they share it with their friends. When we tweet compelling
information that will add value to their lives, they retweet it to their
followers. When we upload a video to YouTube that makes them laugh, they view
it, and comment on it, and share it…hoping to make people just like them laugh
too.
Consumers participate in our
brand.
And in doing so, we learn
from them. They tell us what they think when they share, retweet, comment, and
view. We get a glimpse into what’s important to them, beyond just what our
product delivers. We start to see what guides them every day, and we thank them
for letting them into our lives.
Our brand changes as a result.
We adapt to their lifestyle and to their desires. We even change our products
to better meet their needs. It’s a social form of co-creation that marketers
have never seen before.
Which is why I don’t think we
should call them consumers anymore.
Sure, they consume our
products but they are so much more important that to us than just that.
They participate in our
brand, keeping it vital and relevant in their lives. They make our brand, well,
our brand.
So we should stop calling
them consumers…we should call them participants.
Brand Participants.
There you go!