The Big Consumer Reset - Uwe Hook - MediaBizBloggers

Remember late 2008? Each news item talking about the advertising industry had the tag "Apocalypse" attached to it. Severe budget cuts followed by severe job cuts followed by severe loss of belief in the future of the advertising industry.

Almost two years later, with subtle signs of recovery on the horizon, the advertising industry is starting to believe again. The bulls in our trade even believe that consumers will go back to their merry old ways and do what we want them to do: Consume because we communicate to them efficiently the good old pre-2008 way.

Well, that's a pipe dream.

Let's have a closer look at consumers:

· First, and maybe most importantly, it's hard to find pure consumers anymore.

-- The majority of them have transformed into producers: Reviews, blogs, tweets, Facebook updates, Flickr and YouTube updates – you name it. People share, link, connect, network and engage with each other in ways unthinkable just a few years ago.

· The recession is here to stay.

-- We're experiencing a massive consumer confidence crisis, coupled with high unemployment, half-frozen credit markets, shifting global power and a (still) broken bank system. Pimco's El-Erian calls it the "New Normal" and it's here to stay. At least for the next five years.

· Demographics are catching up with us.

-- Having permanently altered stereotypical gender roles, marital patterns, family structure, and other cultural norms, boomers are coming up with new ways to deal with the financial uncertainty of retirement. Current parents, mostly Generation X, are coming to grips with the fact that their children might face a less prosperous future when they enter college. And Generation Y transformed from spoiled brats to an underemployed, disillusioned generation

· And that's the just the beginning

Add to that: healthcare, federal debt, global warming, Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, Iran – well, I better stop here.

That's why we're living in exciting times.

As I write this column, people are redefining privacy. Identity. They are adopting new behaviors (I doubt location-based apps would have had any chance of success a few years ago). They are redefining how they want to interact with a brand. They are redefining status. Everything is in flux. Everything is up for grabs.

Why would anyone believe that pre-2008 strategies could work in a post-2008 world?

People have become more thoughtful in their purchase considerations. They believe strangers in a loose community more than any advertising message. And, people listen more to conversations about marketing than the marketing itself. People have gone through a severe transformation. Painful. Affecting each facet of their lives. For brands, it's not enough to put up a little Facebook page or tweet along. They have to go through the same process. Painful. Holistic. Comprehensive.

Here are my suggestions:

· Become a social business:Social Media is not a department, nor a tactic. It should inform decisions of the whole enterprise throughout R&D, legal, customer service, legal and any outbound communications. Social Media as a marketing channel is like watching a rainbow through a black and white lens. Only when your whole organization is social, you can experience the vibrant beauty of this phenomenon.

· People live on the edge of networks. Meet them there.Don't abolish your corporate site. But acknowledge that the impact of any corporate site will diminish over time. We're living in a link economy: people might just see one page of your site and move on. Be where the people are. Don't try to push them where you want them to be. It's counter-productive. Don't follow any formulas. For some brands it might not be worth to deploy any Twitter or Facebook strategy. Look at your demographics, psychographics and technographics. And show up where your customers are.

· Tread lightly.We're used to being the bullhorn. If you don't want to be heard, continue on that perilous path. For the rest: participate, don't own it. I know: every fiber of our marketing body wants to dust off the bullhorn. Resist the urge.

· Social Media is not a fringe tactic. It's your core business.Any outbound communication should be supported by Social Media. It should be part of your CRM, Email Marketing, SEM, Display Advertising, TV buys – anything. Launch campaigns without Social Media results in irrelevancy.

I started in this business when a network buy coupled with a few print buys was the norm. You could buy your way into the mind of a consumer. Those days are long gone. You can sit at the lunch table with fellow Mad Men and mumble in your third martini: "It might be an opportunity but it's so difficult. I wish we could be back to the pre-2008 era." Or you can look at these paradigm changes and consider these difficulties as amazing opportunities.

Uwe Hook is the CEO and Co-Founder of BatesHook, Inc. (www.bateshook.com) and a veteran of the advertising and marketing industry with the goal of building connections between people and brands. Uwe can be reached at uwe@bateshook.com.

Read all Uwe's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Subversions - MediaBizBloggers.

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