This means that companies now need to influence people to influence people, which to a large degree can only happen through harnessing digital media. According to Derek Engelbrecht, Retail and Consumer Products Sector Leader at Ernst & Young, people are now far more trustworthy of recommendations made by extended groups of friends and acquaintances on Facebook and Twitter than they will ever be about a marketing brochure or print or broadcast media.
The speed of technology innovation, consumer adoption and access to information has created an environment where everything is known and the consumer is truly the one in power, says IBM.
Increasingly, savvy retailers are responding to this and using technology to make sure interaction with customers is spot-on, based on individual preferences, location and lifestyle.
Banks and insurers, as well as retailers, now follow their clients on social media. They are doing so to try and understand the trends, to see what customers are thinking and spending on, with the view to determining what products and services they need to adjust.
The uptake of social media through devices by younger generations and the growing middle class in growth markets means that social media is leapfrogging the lag in the internet gap in these relatively new markets. – Abridged from BizCommunity.com
Post published in: Business