T-Shirts and Suits Creative Enterprise Network
Creative Enterprise Network :: www.creative-enterprise-network.com
Powerful Customers
My aunty is 85 years old and recently she got a new digital TV with a Sky Box. I was showing her how to use the remote control and I said, “Look at this. Imagine you’re watching a TV programme and you want to take a break or make a cup of coffee. All you do is press this button and the programme stops.” And she looked at me, in all seriousness, and said, “But what about everybody else?”
What that illustrates is the mindset of somebody who was brought up in the last century, whose social habits involved going to the cinema to watch, with everybody else, at the same time, the same films. And even more recently we all watched TV at the same time. Whereas younger consumers expect to be able to record a TV programme to watch later, or to watch it on the internet. For shorthand, we might call these ‘old consumers’ and ‘new consumers’.
In the age of Web 2.0, the interactive web, what we are witnessing is a fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of power in favour of consumers. We no longer have passive consumers who are told what to watch, when to watch it, how to watch it - but a new breed of much more informed, demanding, tech-savvy and communicative consumers.
Consumers are no longer passive. They are creators too. Consumers are also acting as marketers and even as financiers. Technology has enabled this shift in power, but it’s consumers who are driving it and becoming much more powerful. So we need to understand the new economics of the age that we’re living in and this underlying shift in power – a shift which makes things in some ways more difficult, and yet also brings new opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Business models that deny or resist this shift in power are doomed to failure. And that includes many established businesses that are stuck in their ways, who will not or cannot change. They won’t change because they’ve invested so much in the old way of doing business: their assets, financial structures, their mindset, their skills, their staff and their whole way of thinking is based on an outdated assumption that customers are passive and can be treated as one mass.
At the same time, on a positive note, new business models that embrace the fact that consumers are now ever more powerful will succeed. As a business adviser in the creative sector I am helping creative entrepreneurs in the UK and world-wide to develop innovative ways to create profitable business models based on the new opportunities to engage with powerful customers.
The most successful creative businesses in the future will be those which follow this approach.
---
This is an edited extract from a longer article based on a speech by David Parrish to a conference of TV producers in Finland. To watch the video of this speech online, visit: www.t-shirtsandsuits.tv
---
Published on the T-Shirts and Suits blog
What that illustrates is the mindset of somebody who was brought up in the last century, whose social habits involved going to the cinema to watch, with everybody else, at the same time, the same films. And even more recently we all watched TV at the same time. Whereas younger consumers expect to be able to record a TV programme to watch later, or to watch it on the internet. For shorthand, we might call these ‘old consumers’ and ‘new consumers’.
In the age of Web 2.0, the interactive web, what we are witnessing is a fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of power in favour of consumers. We no longer have passive consumers who are told what to watch, when to watch it, how to watch it - but a new breed of much more informed, demanding, tech-savvy and communicative consumers.
Consumers are no longer passive. They are creators too. Consumers are also acting as marketers and even as financiers. Technology has enabled this shift in power, but it’s consumers who are driving it and becoming much more powerful. So we need to understand the new economics of the age that we’re living in and this underlying shift in power – a shift which makes things in some ways more difficult, and yet also brings new opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Business models that deny or resist this shift in power are doomed to failure. And that includes many established businesses that are stuck in their ways, who will not or cannot change. They won’t change because they’ve invested so much in the old way of doing business: their assets, financial structures, their mindset, their skills, their staff and their whole way of thinking is based on an outdated assumption that customers are passive and can be treated as one mass.
At the same time, on a positive note, new business models that embrace the fact that consumers are now ever more powerful will succeed. As a business adviser in the creative sector I am helping creative entrepreneurs in the UK and world-wide to develop innovative ways to create profitable business models based on the new opportunities to engage with powerful customers.
The most successful creative businesses in the future will be those which follow this approach.
---
This is an edited extract from a longer article based on a speech by David Parrish to a conference of TV producers in Finland. To watch the video of this speech online, visit: www.t-shirtsandsuits.tv
---
Published on the T-Shirts and Suits blog
Tags: 2.0, business, consumers, customers, models, new, old, powerful, web
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Lionel on -
This is really interesting and consumer power can be very effective, but many consumers still remain fairly passive in lots of areas. I think that younger people particularly demand and indeed expect a lot more flexibility than older age groups but at the same time have far less awareness and interest of everything around them - too much choice and flexibility has perhaps made them very selective or indeed blinkered. As a result younger people are missing out on huge amounts of experiences and knowledge. The demand it now generation are eroding a lot of practices and experiences and then complain that they are bored more than any other generation - perhaps if their technologically driven demands did not stretch into every aspect of their lives then more "experiences" would add value in their lives and provide meaningful content into their boring lives.
Businesses do need to change their business models to respond to these changing needs and demands but with care and in some cases managed caution to protect their business and brand. There are still areas and businesses that are driven by traditional values and that is contrary to younger peoples needs, but lets not erode all experiences and business models for those with a low boredom threshold, there needs to be variety and choice and some things take time and cannot be rushed - live the experience!
About
© 2010 Created by David Parrish
