People are living their half or more than half of the time daily immersed in technology and use digital channels to communicate and engage with brands they support. Customers use digital media to actively seek out brands, and this has shifted the control from the brand to the consumer, as a result, those brand that doesn’t have a digital presence experiencing a hard time locating new prospects and engaging audiences.
The access to key information at fingertips using digital platforms has driven the shift passive to empowered customers – perhaps it is the connected lives, the abundance of choices, the ease to research, the ability of a customer to get what he want when he want it, where he want it. There’s no doubt today’s “Empowered Consumer” using digital media actively seeking for brands has shifted the control.
Since the advent of the internet and the explosion of digital technology a major shift has taken place in consumer behaviour, now they have the power to research about the product, services and brand to make their purchase decisions – long before a brand is even aware the prospects exist, now many brands understand the importance of digital in their marketing strategies to know, interact and influence consumers’ perceptions, behaviour and decision making.
The Brand-Consumer relationships become so personal that implementing the mass marketing campaigns serves very little or no purpose, as the technology is growing the consumers have the power to control and filter the brand messages to interact with specific messages that they are interested in and have feel of one to one communication, that tell the truth and respect the consumer as an intelligent being; that are not only actionable but also something the consumer will want to share.
Consumers prefer the brands who are responsive and digital platforms are an excellent opportunity for brands to be responsive. More than 75% of consumers expect a response from the brands within a day, in fact, and more than 50% consumers consider it a bad customer experience if the brand doesn’t respond after reaching out to a brand.
Empowered consumers are happy with the brands till brands acknowledge their willing participation, they want to be educated, informed, influenced but never fooled by glossy ads or don’t like to be tricked or misled. They have the good taste to buy your product, and if you deliver what you promised, they’ll talk about and show off their purchase to their friends. They’ll help you embed your message in the culture.
