How simple life was for producers, retailers, retailers, and consumers. For the producer, there were the standard branded products that the retailer sold to the consumer. And the consumer had that same product choice and was satisfied with it. That was the mid-1950s. A time of reconstruction after the Second World War. Also a time of entrepreneurship, renewal, and innovation. Advertising still consisted of advertisements in newspapers and magazines. Mostly black and white. There were fixed prices, and special offers were not yet sufficiently visible. Radio advertising did not yet exist. Nor did television advertising. Just as the internet, PCs, and cable did not exist, and there were only a few TV channels, you watched a film in the cinema. And the news came in via radio, TV, or newspaper.
The life of the average citizen consisted of getting up, having breakfast, going to work—the wife usually stayed at home with the children—coming home, reading the newspaper, eating dinner together in the evening, perhaps playing a game with the children, and then listening to the radio, sometimes a radio play. In that second half of the 1950s, one could buy a television set for 1,000 guilders, but there were few citizens who could afford it.
Space travel had an enormous influence on the media in the decades that followed. Consumerization was set in motion. There were increasing opportunities to use technology for brand messages from producers and retailers to promote their products. Running parallel to this, the process of individualization began in the Netherlands. This became increasingly strong in the decades that followed. The media developed into mass media and disrupted the age-old conventional advertising systems.
If we now skip a few decades, we arrive at today’s society. Comparing the delivery of photos and videos to the media used to take days, if not weeks. Now it is a matter of seconds. And it is no longer just the professionals. Many amateurs are responsible for feeding social media with photos and videos. And they often surpass the professionals in likes.
Over the past few decades, we have undergone a metamorphosis. Nowadays, various types of media play a prominent role in daily life. For online marketers, it is a paradise. Every day, more opportunities appear to use the internet for the best promotion.
But how could it have come to this?
The media of the time were disrupted by the new possibilities. The marketers of that era also had to adapt and get used to the new trend. A trend that, as it turned out, persists permanently. In the 1990s, personal computers began to emerge. People played games on them, and in offices, it was still mainly amateurs who worked with them. Naturally, this also applied to media companies. They gained access to information, photos, and films much faster. However, over time, amateurs started to pick this up as well. The internet became the digital infrastructure for learning and sharing. Social networks became a welcome addition to people’s communication needs.
Consumerization has taken off at an enormous pace. At its core lies the development of software. With the right software, it is possible to execute almost anything one can imagine. Take, for example, the 3D printer, which can print virtually anything, even in parts. As a company, you can make yourself unique by designing websites in such a way that they are attractive enough for consumers to visit.
While technology continued unabated, it was still something companies had to get used to. After all, everything was accelerating, and they simply had to be able to keep up. That was also expected of a company. But this adjustment consisted of three phases. First, an idea was seen as unimportant. Things always worked out fine anyway. Second, people would challenge this, but in the final phase, sometimes under external pressure, it was eventually accepted.
Extreme personalization has now become so ingrained that producers know in detail what the consumer does, wants, and buys. The consumer’s choice is virtually endless, partly because private individuals have also entered the commercial market en masse. The producer can already directly translate many of the consumer’s wishes into the right production. Take the automotive industry, for example. The consumer can configure their own car via the internet. The pinnacle of individualization.
Therefore, it is important to make optimal use of social technologies and connect with various consumers to constantly “get inside their heads,” unlike in the past. For the marketer, it is a permanent primary task to increase or at least maintain relevance. Social media is then not used to push a product, but to foster consumer-to-consumer interactions. For example, forums can provide a lot of information for the producer, allowing the product, price, packaging, distribution, etc., to be improved.
The marketer wants to know how a product adds value, and what kind of results the consumer wants? The following steps can help with this.
Audit
Conduct an audit to promote user activity in the digital social environment. Emphasize the use cases of the consumers of the key products. The use-case model promotes stakeholders who use and contribute to the fulfillment of the objectives as actors.
Use-case
Relate the high-intensity information from the use case to the business principles and objectives. Participation in this must be efficient for the company. From there, optimization for consumer relevance and efficiency can be pursued.
Forum
Create forums where consumer-to-consumer interaction is nurtured. Participating in these means providing consumers with information and allowing experts to participate. The online marketer can manage the forum.
It is also recommended to use multiple forums. This can be done, for example, per product group. This refinement of information gathering provides a more targeted insight into what is on the minds of consumers.
B2B companies
The producer deals not only with consumers but sometimes also with supplying other businesses. Here, too, pricing, packaging, etc., are just as important. Give these the same attention as you do to consumers.
Adjustments
The interactions on the forums can lead to adjustments regarding the product. These forums can consist of hundreds of consumers or more. They are, after all, consumers who voluntarily enter into a relationship with the forum and/or product. That is a community you must take into account. Therefore, respond appropriately. If you do not respond properly, the forum may turn against you.
