Google
 

Friday, June 1, 2007

Consumer Power 2.0: Crowdbuying

"The latest twist in private equity is the organized purchasing power of what Trendwatching calls crowd clout: consumers using their collective power to get what they desire, either as flash mobs (see the Chinese phenomenon of tuangou: people interested in buying a certain product congregate online and then storm into a physical store at a coordinated time to negotiate a bulk discount) or through an online fundraising effort such as MyFootballClub, which aims to buy a professional league soccer/football club in the UK."

Read the story here

Marketers must embrace shift of power to the consumer

There were three engaging presentations about the Future of Online Marketing at the Commission Junction University event for advertisers and publishers in London this week. (read the full story here)

Nigel Sheldon, director of digital at Starcom Digital, stressed the importance of “getting under the skin” of what people are doing online and understanding "increasingly complex decision journeys”.

Vinny Lingham , of Clicks2Customers, told advertisers to be under no illusions that that “the consumer owns your brand”.

Mark Creighton, MD of i-level, said that marketers need to make sure that they are not just making empty promises. They run the risk of being exposed at a time when user-generated content is becoming more prevalent and visible on the internet.
He added: “Marketers will have to respond to the fact that consumers have far more control ... The confidence that consumers have achieved means that they will talk about it and share it if you make promises but don’t deliver."

Flash Mob's

Consumer Power in a Flash › › › Brand Marketing

By Martin Lindstrom March 27, 2007
On the January 2, 2007, something unusual happened in the small German city of Braunschweig. Nine hundred thirty-one of its 245,500 inhabitants arranged a raid on the local McDonald's restaurant. It wasn't the type of raid that ends in violence. It was the type of raid known a flashmob. Coordinated via cell phones, the flashmob is a gathering of people for a specific purpose. In this case, it was to storm a McDonald's and order some 2,211 burgers all at once -- to go!
Naturally, the incident made headlines in the local press. News of this event may not have gone any further, if it weren't for YouTube.
A young guy, nicknamed churchill225, was the first to capture the flashmob raid on video and upload it to the file-sharing site. Soon, thousands of people began downloading the video and sharing rumors about making another surprise mass visit to another McDonald's. As I write, 10 more German McDonald's restaurants are on the hot list. The phenomenon has become a game between McDonald's and its customers.
It's a game because both sides love the sport. Never before has McDonald's secured this much positive attention in the press. And never before have sales skyrocketed like this. McDonald's didn't have to do a thing. I interviewed the CEO of McDonald's Germany about the flashmob phenomenon in my video blog.