Why Do We Have To Change The 2 In &?

I want to show you today why do we have to change the 2 in &.

Let’s think about it from a digital level.

Social Media is created by two important factors: consumers/users (people) and brands (companies). And these factors “give birth” to the experience that makes Social Media so interesting, attractive and interactive. We know that Social Media is about experience: consumer + consumer, consumer + brand, brand + consumer and sometimes even brand + (or vs.) brand.

Having the freedom in this relationship, consumers posses the power to influence brands and brands can choose to be co-created and formed by the consumer or not.

Of course, brands can choose to be influenced by consumers: through the comments they leave (and from what I’ve gathered from brands Facebook pages there are a lot of –call to action – questions that make me think about the following question: Are brand really looking for feedback through these many questions?, through reviews from the consumers, concerns, criticism, praises, experience sharing, etc. And consumers, in return, can choose to offer such information to brands [surely there are users in need of something more from a brand]) in order to get an answer to a need later.

I’ve tried to exemplify this relationship between consumer and brand in the next example:

• Point A – Brand co-created and formed by the consumer
• Point B – The marketer that MUST balance the scale.
• Point C – The consumer influenced by the brand.

But in all this co-aiding relationship comes the issue of Who is helping the other one more? The consumer is helping the brand more, or the brand the consumer? Eh, this is where we need the marketer’s wisdom that knows how to balance the scale of the relationship. A marketer that knows both his consumers/target and the brand.

I figured this whole relationship at a Social Media Relationship Between Brands & Consumers level, but I want you to leave you to discover this relationship in your own field (PR, Design, Branding, etc.)

See your relationship with your target as a co-creating and balanced relationship. Let’s stop once and for all with this foolish theory: “Our client, Our Master” or “Everything revolves around the Brand”.

Let’s start thinking at a relationship level, at a B&B and B&C level.

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