Smart consumerism

Businesses (via their marketers) have long relied on creating hype and halo around their brands – mostly via their Marcom (micro managing agencies).  Take a candid look at the following indicators:

• The percentage of a marketers time/energy  in an organisation that is spent on Marcom and chasing the sales team for month-end targets vs. time spent on creating real value for the consumers (not just gimmicky promos);
• The amount of time/energy spent on ‘Shouting’ (Marcom) vs. ‘Listening’ (research, including all forms of consumer feedback);

Smart Consumers are now figuring out ways to de-hype, de-halo the noise that brands make – to smartly figure out what they really need, who is able to best ‘customise’ for them, who provides the best value for money. Businesses have long relied on the 1+1=3 formula – taking some very basic ‘ingredients’ (the 1+1) and showering it with a lot of  hype and halo – hoping that additional 1 will make it 3. But as consumers get smarter and are faced with greater wallet pressures, they are beginning to unscramble the magic.

Smart Consumers will push businesses (that have long relied on preying on gullible consumers) to start responding to this new wave of Smart Consumerism.