Mar 09

The human civilization has seen many ages. Each age was known after the material that was used maximum and hence more popular, during the time. First it was the Stone Age. The Bronze Age was the next. The copper age followed. With industrialization, what came was the Iron Age and then when steel took over and it got to be known as the steel age.

I am tempted to ask myself 'so which age am I living now?'. Well if I have been in any other industry I would have had to break my head with a problem of plenty. Being a die-hard member of the marketing & communications clan, I can't resist but to name the current age - the age of dialog. More specifically the age of consumer dialog.

So why it is the age of dialog? Is it because there is so much of dialog around. I wish I can say that. But I am calling it an age of dialog for two reasons - the options for dialog have grown manifold and importance of dialog with the consumer has suddenly increased more than ever.

It takes a simple guess to say the channels for dialog have grown with the growth of interactive media. But why has the importance for Consumer dialog increased? I have to say that it is because the brand owners has not seized the opportunity to interact with the consumer in spite of the growth of the dialog options. Though there are exceptions, still I can take the liberty to generalize because still majority of the brand owners are yet to get it right. Many of the brand owners have not started creating and leveraging the channels of dialog. And if they have, a good majority of them have created the channels for the `feel-good' and left them hanging. The proof is with each one of us - As consumers each of us have our own experiences - from desperately looking for options to reach the brand to share something we wanted to, mails that never got managed to get a response and many more.

So the consumers instead of being in dialog with the brand owners are using the plethora of options available today to be in conversations amongst themselves. Call it peer to peer conversations. These conversations are taking many avatars including blogs, consumer complaint portals, anti-brand communities, sharing of experiences through social media. It is real socialism out there and this socialism has already taken alarming proportions. Is the marketer hearing these ? yes, maybe, maybe not.

How do you stop consumers talking amongst themselves? just logical and simple. First hear with your ears wide open. Second talk back with your ears still open. But how many ears? The ears that marketer needs will be too many isn't it ? That is a challenge the marketer has to live with. More popular the brand, more the numbers of ears needed.

Marketing has evolved from `pushing what was created’ to `producing what the consumer wants’. Today, it is no longer just producing what the consumer wants but co-creation of brands and the brand experience in conjunction with the consumer. For co creation to happen it is important to hear the voice of the consumer. Not just that - Engage the consumer in a dialog.

So will the marketing fraternity wake up? Being a smarter race, I hope it does soon. One thing I am sure of - in a world of fancy designations, there could be an interesting addition - Chief Dialog officer. So if it’s time for the CMO's to fade out let us get ready to welcome the new CDO.