The relationship between Marketers and Consumers

By Jasmine Subrata

 

 

Marketers and consumers were once on the opposite ends of the spectrum, both looking at each other with intrigue. But with the existence of social networks to facilitate communication, the two have aided each other in terms of sales and branding. In other words, marketers and consumers are no longer mutually exclusive. Petrescu & Korgaonkar succinctly defines viral marketing as “online and offline marketing activities preformed to influence consumers to pass along commercial messages to other consumers.” The producer, consumer, and the community to which the consumer belongs is a triadic relationship, which when laid together produces a modern direct marketing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By harnessing social networks, marketers have an easier time appealing to the consumer and their community. The two strongest social networking sites for marketers to seize are Facebook and Twitter, which allow efficient two-way communication between the brand and the audience. The consumer is no longer passive because they always engage, and always interact (Subrata 2014). However, Palmer & Koenig-Lewis (2009) argued that there should be a “fine balance between using pressure to steer the community in the direction that would be in the brand owner’s interests, and relinquishing some degree of control of the brand to the community.” Whilst user-generated communities are part of good marketing, it could easily skew away from the core values of the brand. Customers would rather be guided by information from friends and personal contacts rather than the company’s formal promotion. These information, however, might not be for the brand’s best interests. Companies would rather have producer-led communities where the brand image is heavily policed. However, when marketers interfere too much in consumer-led communities, it would lead to the audience feeling detached and invaded. In an interview with copywriter Shivram Gopinath (2014), he explained that the contemporary relationship “puts more of a responsibility on marketers and advertisers to ensure their content is engaging, relevant, tactful and non-intrusive.”

 

The traditional relationship between marketers-to-consumers have changed in recent years to become consumer-to-consumer. In some cases, marketers act like a supervisor to the inner workings of the consumers, only interposing when negative buzz begin to form. Peer-to-peer marketing is shown to be more effective than direct marketing (Dobele, Toleman & Beverland 2005), because people are more likely to heed the advice given from their social circle. This new approach lowers the cost of promotion and increases the rate of adoption. The positive endorsements and free sponsorship in consumer-led communities and peer-to-peer sharing has become an invaluable and inexpensive tool for marketers.

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1

Palmer, A & Koenig-Lewis, N 2009, ‘Direct marketing in a social network context’, graph, in An experiential, social network-based approach to direct marketing, Swansea University, Swansea, UK, p. 163