An Active Consumer

After doing our mid-semester social media monitoring projects, Groundswell makes even more sense. Once you take a look at how important social media is in creating a company and defining its objectives and actions, you realize how much of a role the active consumer plays in any company in the 21st century.

Chapters 11 and 12 discuss connection and transforming through the groundswell, as well as what happens to a company after the groundswell is acknowledged and given a chance to thrive and steer the decision making.

In my social media monitoring project, I focused on a company that has a particularly intense interest in its groundswell. Skullcandy replaces broken products for its customers with no questions asked; this is a specific example of how the active consumer, social media, and the company's actions are online reputation have all come together; Skullcandy prides itself on its policy to please the customer, and the groundswell echoes this sentiment. Customers are proud to choose a company that chooses them. It's a positive feedback loop, and everyone plays a part.

In Chapter 11 of Groundswell, Unilever and Dell are given as two examples of companies that let their market lead their decisions. Unilever's example is one we're all familiar with; their campaign was incredibly popular, and it's obvious that they used the idea of what the groundswell wanted to motivate their ads.

The Dove ads are particularly interesting to me. A company that sells makeup, creams to fix your skin, and all sorts of beauty enhancers has somehow managed to use the antithesis of their products to sell their products. It's brilliant, when you think about it. By giving the illusion that they support "real beauty" and an un-Photoshopped model, they win. While the customer-oriented aspect of their campaign was the focus of the book's discussion of Unilever, I can't help but touch on their brilliantly ironic marketing. When it comes down to it, they want to make money, but they know that in order to do that, they must appeal to their audience and use them to make their decisions. They had to loosen their control to come out on top.

The Dell example was great. The individual's emails to the company were such a real example of why customer support matters. Jeff's descent into "Dell hell" as the book calls it, and his mention of the new "seller beware" attitude show how strong the groundswell can be. Thanks to Dell's

decision to let this push their new social strategy, they survived this negative response. Without listen to the groundswell and incorporating them into their marketing, Dell would not have fared so well.

Similarly, Skullycandy's recent decision to have online live service for its customers will probably help quell the discontent over frequently broken headphones. Although Skullcandy already has a very awesome policy in place to please customers with product issues, customers will still have to put out the effort to retrieve the replacement product. With online customer support, perhaps they will be more complacent when these issues arise.

One of the examples in Chapter 12 perplexed me. The Best Buy Blue Shirt Nation anecdote is so ideal. Every employer wants someone like the person they profiled, but how often -- especially at a low-paying retail sale associate job - does this happen? Having worked at the bottom of the totem pole at a poorly paying job, it was constantly a struggle to provide good service with the idea in the back of my head that nothing would ever change the fact that I didn't matter to the store's owner; no one there did. While groundswell and customer service are paramount, it cannot be overlooked at a supportive infrastructure of business associates is also necessary.