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Consumer Marketers

March 30, 2009 8 Comments
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power to the peopleYou’re a consumer, but you’re also a marketer.

You buy a product, sign up for a service, watch a movie or drink and eat because you’ve been marketed to. But you’re also a marketer.

You either like a product, service, movie, drink or food or you don’t. That’s your decision as a consumer. But you’re now the marketer. Good experience or bad, you now tell your friends. Your family. Your community. Your network.

Because now you’re the marketer.

Your decision of either a thumbs up or a garbage bin appraisal is what gets marketed to your friends. Your family. Your community. Your network.

By being a consumer that’s marketed to, you’ve just become a business’s unpaid marketer. That makes you their most valuable asset.

So, the question is – if you’re a marketer, are you also being a consumer?

Creative Commons License photo credit: dizid

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About Danny

Danny Brown is Chief Technologist at ArCompany and an award-winning marketer and blogger. His blog is recognized as the #1 marketing blog in the world by HubSpot. Danny is also co-author of Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing.

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Jared O'Toole
Jared O'Toole

If you've every recommended something to someone your a marketer. The company knows your talking about their product. They may have even told a nice story behind their stuff for you to re-tell. Every brand creates what they hope will be something that generates WOM, which turns all the consumers into marketers.

Seth Simonds
Seth Simonds

Some consumers also function as marketers. I don't think the reverse is possible because everybody is a consumer in some way.

The marketing lead for a Pepsi promotion who drinks Coke is making a consumer choice. She'll tell you to drink Pepsi until she's blue in the face...but get her home and she drinks Coke. That disconnect has caused problems in the past but a part of the solution may lie in social media. Utilizing brand advocates to access specific markets in powerful ways might just be the path to take. I'd hate to think that we'll continue to bludgeon unhappy consumers with marketing concepts they just aren't interested in.

Damien Basile
Damien Basile

This speaks to word of mouth and social media marketing especially. If you buy something, on some level you believe in it otherwise you wouldnt purchase it. There are many other choices out there. Regardless of why you bought it, you still gave your money (ultimately) to the person who made it, thus solidifying your approval of their product/service.

The natural social nature of a human being wants to share their info with people they know or other people who may care. Ultimately you become a marketer because you are a consumer. Conversely, marketers are originally consumers because they consume their own brand they market. Anecdotally, I think of instances of people wearing t-shirts emblazoned with designer logos that are well-known. This is the ultimate consumption-marketing vehicle. This type of usage becomes a feedback loop where a person becomes a consumarketer.

We're all consumarketers. Some of us just don't know it, while others are taking complete advantage of that fact for better or worse.

Danny
Danny

It's a good point. On the flip side, often marketing is simply creating that want for the need you can fill, regardless of whether you'd be a consumer of that product or not. This is where missing the boat completely can come into effect and marketers stop being consumers and think purely from a marketing perspective.

Obviously there is market research before a big marketing push, yet a lot of companies ignore this and still go down the "You'll like it because we say you will" route. I think this is the mindset that needs to change, and we'll see less of us more power comes back to the consumer again.

Thanks for stopping by, Damien, nice to see you around these here parts. :)

Tim Jahn
Tim Jahn

I think so. We're all consumers and marketers to some degree. I don't have Trader Joe's marketing budget but I'll gladly explain to you why I feel Jewel doesn't give a crap about what they do and Trader Joe's cares a ton.

I think the two go hand in hand. Marketers have a better understanding of how to reach consumers because they're consumers themselves. Consumers understand what kind of marketing works for them because they market their likes and dislikes to their friends.

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