‘The Customer’s Always Right’

Leaflets, binned. Posters, graffitied. TV, viewed once, missed it – too late.

Digital is the window that shows the same weather everyday. You don’t open a screen and get grey, you don’t open a tab and get storms, you open a new window and get exactly what you want and what you expect sat neatly in front of you.

You’re engaged, because you returned – that’s why you’re here.

And it’s not just you that’s cottoned on to this trend. The web is saturated with those in the know, and is making space for those that are ready to board.

When the dreaded ‘crunch’ word leads companies to cut the newspaper ad, reduce the magazine spend and cut radio out altogether, the digital age continues to flourish.

Money must be spent to get recognition, to repeat, educate and inform. But much more tactical and planned execution must be employed to use this spend wisely. As a company you’ve got to know where to put your money and cash it in quickly. Putting up a website, a microsite, sharing information on social networking sites, blogging, feeds – all these media get read not once, not twice, but hundreds of thousands of times. And ‘technically’ you’re only really investing that once, with top ups along the way. Surely, this is wise investment.

But who started it, the consumers or the companies – are we voting chicken or are we voting egg?

For my money, ‘it tastes like chicken’!

Social networking sites like Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, and sharing spaces like Digg and Del.icio.us are cramming in members, fans and exchanging media like it’s going out of fashion – except it’s not, it’s striding the catwalk like a diva! Just recently we’ve been approached by several global corporates, ‘we need to be on Facebook; we’ve got to get to the consumer market’. They are effectively buying shoppers. But are the shoppers buying them?

Yes, the companies are coming to the consumer, they’re letting them shop online and even receive their purchases online or at least within a reach of the postbox. The consumers may have prompted businesses to increase their investment in digital. But it’s not like the businessses feel ashamed, oh no – they’re feeling pretty ok about it.

Joining a page as a fan gives you affiliation, exclusivity and better still if you ‘buy into’ (in the true sense) the products on offer, as a ‘member’ you get even more rewards.

They’re paying for you to be happy, and you’re saying thanks, and they’re saying thanks back.
So, as a business you’ve got your Facebook page, your MySpace banners, your Twitter – what next, do you sit tight, are you done?

No, and since the customer’s always right, you’ve got more to do. If you really want to be up there, right at the front, stretching like a child in a classroom with their arm waving in the air, then read on.

It’s ok having placements but you need people to know about them. Everyone, and I mean everyone visits a search engine. Some once a day, some ten times a day, some just keep the browser open.

You’ve got your consumer at their desk, you’ve got them typing, but when they click ‘Search’…….er, you’re not at the top of the list. You’re not even on the first page. And even if you’re no maths whizz, you know that no one clicks past the first page.

So there’s work to do, and this must be done alongside the build of your projects. It must be planned concurrently. Get media buy, employ quick campaigns, do seeding. Plant that site, banner or advert firmly in its pot and water it!

Let’s conclude.

Digital is booming and companies and consumers are starting to align in their presence online.

But one of them’s playing catch up.

No one wants to be the one that’s left behind - Because the customer is always right!

Katherine K
Digital Account Manager